About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Last Days of Night by Graham Moore

Last Days of Night by Graham Moore – 

Brilliant!!!!

I find few books brilliant and fewer yet deserving of brilliant with exclamation marks. Last Days of Night is brilliantly written, brilliantly plotted, has brilliant characterizations, brilliantly uses historical figures and events and is brilliantly named. Lastly brilliant is so appropriate for a book focused on electric light.

Set at the end of the 1880’s Last Days of Night manages to make a patent law conflict into a riveting thriller. While ordinarily patent law is a complex, at times esoteric, area of law it comes vividly alive in Last Days of Night.

Paul Cravath, 26 years old and barely two years out of Columbia Law School, is contacted by George Westinghouse to defend his company from patent infringement allegations made by Thomas Alva Edison.

Edison alleges Westinghouse has breached Edison’s patent on the electric light bulb. While the light bulb is a mundane object of little notice in the 21st Century it was at the forefront of scientific exploration late in the 19th Century.

Determined to drive Westinghouse out of business for challenging him, Edison sues Westinghouse for $1,000,000,000! The one billion dollar claim would be startling today. It was a staggering amount for late Victorian times.

Why Westinghouse would retain such young counsel is a reflection of the tightly connected business world of New York City in that era. Every major law firm in New York had either worked for Edison or his largest shareholder, J. Pierpoint Morgan. Cravath was too new to the legal business to have a conflict of interest.

Following a legal strategy still used by Big Business almost 130 years later Edison seeks to overwhelm Westinghouse and Cravath by volume of litigation. Taking to the courts against Westinghouse’s main corporation and subsidiaries all over America Edison launches 312 separate court actions. It is legal war over electric light.

It is a daunting struggle for the young Cravath. Edison clearly reached the Patent Office with the first electric bulb patent. Westinghouse, a much better industrialist, significantly improved the electric bulb and has a much better product. However, how can he distinguish his light bulb from the patented Edison bulb.

Looking to penetrate Edison’s actions in inventing the light bulb Cravath searches out, Reginald Fessenden, recently fired by Edison. A generous offer lures him the Purdue University campus to Westinghouse.

Fessenden recommends that Westinghouse recruit the most brilliant inventor of that era, Nikolai Tesla. (I contend “brilliant” is apt not over-stating Tesla’s intellect.) The Serbian born scientist is eccentric to the extreme but his restless mind constantly releases new ideas.

Tesla aids Westinghouse’s cause by providing breakthroughs in the use of alternating current (AC). Edison, stubborn beyond scientific reason, uses direct current (DC) in his machines. The conflict, thus begun over the light bulb, now includes AC v. DC. An epic legal contest is extended from the light bulb to which company shall control the production and nature of electricity in America .

Through the legal fray there is skulduggery, treachery, a touch of violence and amazing minds conjuring the future.

In Cravath’s personal and professional life comes Agnes Huntingdon. The most popular singer of the day is a beautiful, very self-possessed young woman. The nature of the relationship between Cravath and Huntingdon surprised this reader.

It is the best book I have read in 2017 and a worthy member of the shortlist for this year’s Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Best of all it is based on the truth.
**** 

6 comments:

  1. Oh, that does sound fascinating, Bill! And the fact that it's based on facts makes it even more so. I don't have a sophisticated understanding of patent law, so it's also good to know that Moore outlines it in a way that
    'the rest of us' can understand, without being condescending. I'm going to look this one up...

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    1. Margot: Fear not. The book is far from any technical treatise on patent law. It makes clear why patent law is important and the challenge of attributing discovery. I think you will be absorbed if you are able to read the book.

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  2. That's quite a recommendation! We know you love a good legal book, but you make this one sound as though it would delight all of us.

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    1. Moira: Thanks for the comment. I think you would be absorbed in the plot. There are some nice descriptions of clothes especially a dress that started a singing career.

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  3. I thought it was excellent. It takes a story teller to make patent law interesting. All kidding aside, I enjoyed how he was faithful to the history and at the same time made a captivating story. I appreciated that he had the section at the end to outline where and why he deviated from the historical sources. Overall one of the better books I have read in the past few years.

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    1. mike: Thanks for the comment. Patent law in a captivating story reflects a talented writer. I am glad you enjoyed the book. I think would find his earlier book, The Sherlockian, interesting as well.

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