Proof by Jon Cowan

(29. - 1272.) Proof by Jon Cowan - Jake West, Rich Kaplan and Javi Alvarez all attended Boalt Hall, now Berkeley Law. Jake is the son of a very prominent L.A. lawyer, Norman West. 

Their careers and lives have taken divergent paths. Jake, a skilled trial lawyer, has become an out of control alcoholic who has barely gone to his office in his father’s firm in a year. Rich, grinding away, has become a partner in the same firm, Thompson and West. Javi, trying to get the right results for clients using the wrong methods has been disbarred and is working as a private investigator.

Norman West, Jake’s father, is a domineering man in the family and at the office. Jake has chafed all his life at his father’s control. 

Rich is trying to get a drunken Jake home one night when there is a knock on the car window. When Jake opens the window a hooded gunman shoots Rich in the head with .44 Magnum and drops the gun. By picking up the gun, a deeply shaken Jake becomes the lead suspect.

Jake’s family life is a mess because of his alcohol abuse. On the night of Rich’s death his blood alcohol reading was .16. The average person is stumbling drunk at that level. When Rich found him that evening Jake was making a credible legal argument to a woman, not his wife, and a non-existent jury in an empty courtroom. Decades of heavy drinking are needed to reach such a tolerance.

Sioban McFadden, a bright and charming former Dublin detective, is the lead homicide detective.

Jake, prone to conspiracies, believes Rich’s death was connected to his last case - the defence of Tianna Walker who is accused of murdering two of her children by setting fire to their apartment while she was drunk. 

I had more difficulty with Rich defending a criminal case than a conspiracy to murder him. He was a corporate lawyer dealing with complex contracts. To take on murder defence does not make sense.

The facts grow ever more complicated with more murders connections to the deaths of Rich and Tianna’s children.

With the value of real estate sky high in L.A. it is no surprise that a billion dollar development is involved in the plot.

There is an underlying legal complexity to the book. If a firm ends up in a situation where a client’s case intersects with another client there is a conflict of interest. If there is a direct connection the firm must not represent either client. While there may be some circumstances where the firm could continue with both clients the prudent course is to withdraw from both clients. Of course, that is not exciting and Jake is flexible with legal ethics.

His disregard for the ethics that have been established over centuries irritated me. The ends do not justify the means. Javi has been disbarred for such an approach to the law. 

Jake will do anything for a client he believes in. That attitude inevitably means he compromises his integrity.

He is already in a precarious position because of a case in which he was ethically trapped by a false document created to confirm Jake was accessing documents to which he had been prohibited access.

I was reminded of Mickey Haller in the Michael Connelly series engaging in an unethical action to gain a mistrial for a client in a case about to be lost. I called the “Bloody Flag Move” sleazy. Jake, while handsome and charismatic and brilliant, is also sleazy.

There are other lawyers in the book who also act unethically. I do not excuse any of them.

If you like lawyers who consider ethical rules suggestions you will enjoy Jake.

When Jake and his team use legal skills by launching a civil action they resort to the approaches that dominate crime shows on T.V. They convince, entice, threaten and ignore the law.

The bad guys, including the lawyers opposing Jake, look to violence. It is constantly an option to solve a problem. Violence, threatened or actual, is dramatic but not convincing in big law firms and small law firms. 

There was some nifty legal maneuvering by Thompson West against Jake - he is pushed from the firm - that was very credible while lowering the drama quotient.

Jake’s personal life plays a role. He is good at wanting to be a good husband and a good father. His teenage daughter, Chloe, is becoming hardened to his parental lapses and careful when he tries to make amends.

Cowan reminds me of Michael Connelly. He tells a story well. Though I have been unhappy with how several of Connelly’s recent books see detectives breaching the rules of lawful investigations Cowan goes further. Jake, his colleagues and Detective McFadden do not respect the law. They are cynical about the legal system. Their attitude is summed up by McFadden’s thought:

There’s doing what’s legal, and there’s doing what’s right.

It is the justification of vigilantes around the world.

I rarely read the blurb on the inside of the front cover but I did on Proof. It said Jake forms a team to “skirt the law in order to find the proof he needs”. “Skirt” is a euphemism. They break the law.

Cowan was a writer and executive producer of the legal T.V. series, Suits. As I read the book I found myself envisaging Jake as Harvey Specter (the actor, Gabriel Macht) in Suits.

Cowan writes a smooth driving narrative drawing the reader through the book. He has the skill to write a legal thriller focused on law rather than a conventional American thriller where the hero happens to be a lawyer.

The Diamond Queen of Singapore by Ian Hamilton

(31. - 1274.) The Diamond Queen of Singapore by Ian Hamilton - To my surprise Ava Lee is back in Toronto to start the book and returns to debt collection. I had thought she would be full time in China after the last few books.

Ava returns to Toronto with her lover, Pang Fai, to introduce her to the city, her mother, her mother’s friends and her friends. It is a relaxing visit until her best friend in high school, Mimi, tells her of her father-in-law, Phil Gregory, losing all his money in a fraud scheme and committing suicide.

It has been a very skilful fraud involving Graham Muir. Gregory had met him when he started attending Harvest Table Bible Church, a mega-evangelical church. Muir established an investment fund, Harvest Investment Fund, that only accepted investments from church members. Over $30 million was invested. Suddenly all the money is gone. Muir created funds in 4 provinces which renders any investigation very difficult. They are bankrupt and he is bankrupt while living comfortably on his wife’s inherited millions.

It takes no persuasion for Ava to decide she will pursue the money. While she no longer needs to earn money through debt collection she has the lawyer for the defrauded sign the usual agreement she had used with Uncle. She is to keep 30% of any amount collected.

She swiftly learns the money went to Amsterdam. The lawyer in Canada had been unable to get further than the first stop for the money.

She hires Jacob Smit again. The clever little investigator takes her to meet members of the Jain community in Antwerp who have become leading diamond brokers. Integrity and honesty and trust govern their relationships. They will share information if they were used in a fraudulent scheme.

Until reading the book I had not known of the extensive diamond business in Antwerp.

Eventually the search takes her to Singapore. She finds her contacts in the triads of mainland China and Hong Kong are of limited help. The Singapore government has crushed the triads in Singapore. The ability to detain those arrested withouot charge indefinitely was used against the triads. One leader was held 12 years without charge until he died in prison. It is explained to Ava that while the Western World believes in law and order Singapore believes in order.

The Diamond Queen of Singapore sees Ava’s vast network of connections that extend around the world. She carefully and continually cultivates guanxi (the Chinese word for relationships based on favours and trust). She strives to maintain relationships.

In The Diamond Queen of Singapore her triad connections continue, even expand.

There is a touch of violence but the use of menace was far more intimidating.

The money of bad guys and bad girls cannot disappear when Ava goes after you.

At the same time Ava’s relationship with Pang Fai is deepening and Ava is being drawn into the movie industry with a powerful story deserving to be made into a movie.

The Diamond Queen of Singapore was a welcome return to the early books in the series when Ava was using her accounting skills. The later Ava Lee books are easy reads building on what has happened in the earlier books of the series.

****

Hamilton, Ian - (2012) - The Water Rat of Wanchai; (2013) - The Disciple of Las Vegas; (2014) - The Wild Beasts of Wuhan; (2014) - The Red Pole of Macau; (2016) - The Scottish Banker of Surabaya; (2018) - The Two Sisters of Borneo; (2019) - The King of Shanghai; (2020) - The Princeling of Nanjing; (2020) - Fate; (2020) - Foresight; (2021) - Fortune; (2022) - Finale; (2022) - Body Counts in Fictional Gang Wars (Ian Hamilton, John Grisham and Don Winslow); (2023) - The Couturier of Milan; (2023) - The Iman of Tawi-Tawi; (2024) - The Goddess of Yantai; (2025) The Mountain Master of Sha Tin

Contemplation of a Crime by Susan Juby

(24. - 1267.) Contemplation of a Crime by Susan Juby - It is going to be an amazing " Close Encounters for Global Healing" (motto: 5 days that will change your world) off the coast of Vancouver Island. 

Pain Wainscott III, convicted of criminal harassment of a young woman hockey player, is going there as part of his sentence. Pain does not care:

He'd been named after bread because when he was born, his mother imagined he was going to “nourish the world ….  He ended up being a “right little sadist”, according to the testimony in his trial.

Yana Heppler, A righteous climate advocacy prig is going because there was "someone in her online climate action group who wasn't able to attend”. She is ready to engage in “revolutionary action”.

Wayne Krupke is another kind of activist best reflected by his description of the masks worn during Covid days. He describes them as face diapers. His sister hopes his attendance will bring about a change in attitude.

There are two other participants who are also ill-fitting in society.

They are Madison who is consumed by her phone and her image and Tom  who is associated with white nationalists though he is not really a member.

Helen Thorpe and her employer Benedict Levine are going to be there under assumed names, Hetty Thorpe and Scooter Bruin respectively, to assist Levine's son, David Levinson, who is in charge of the retreat. (I will refer to Helen and Benedict by their real names as that is how the chapter headings refer to them.) Helen is not happy because she had been going on vacation. In the best traditions of butlers she accommodates  her employer.

Helen is to be the spiritual advisor in this group of clashing egos. Even for a person as mindful as herself I felt she faced a daunting task.

A schedule going from six in the morning until nine at night is demanding for the participants are accustomed to time freedom.

An exercise on telling the group of an unexpected skill is moving. Scooter explains his skill is what colours look good on people. Madison can remember the names of plants in English and Latin. Pain is good at drawing pigs. Wayne can back up vehicles into tight spots. Yana is strong. Suddenly they are listening to each other.

The plot shifts dramatically when Benedict and David are kidnapped. Helen is to be the go-between and arrange the ransom.

Aided by her butler classmates, Gavin and Murray, and new butler Nigel she engages by phone with the kidnappers who have disguised their voices. She regrets not having taken the kidnapping course at butler school.

Revealing her real name Helen forms one of the most unusual team of sleuths from the participants and the butlers. They set up a white board just like T.V. detectives.

The band of the marginalized and butlers start searching the island.

Helen applies her logical mind to the facts. I found her illogical, for the first time, in not calling in the police because Benedict told her not to call them.

In a surprising twist Benedict is not a terrified kidnap victim. He applies his business experience in negotiations to discussions with the kidnappers. 

The key deduction is so clever, well worthy of the intelligence of the butlers. It leads to a conclusion that is both humorous and suspenseful.

Juby manages to make the participation of a dragon boat and a motorized bathtub credible. (The bathtub with an outboard motor had been an entry in Nanaimo’s Annual Bathtub Race.)

Juby has a talent for the right amount of detail in scenes - always enough to see them but not descending into minutiae.

Juby directly, but not confrontationally gets readers to reflect on differing perspectives in politics and culture because Helen listens to everyone. 

While Helen’s composure was shaken by the kidnapping she never panics. She is a great character and a credit to the butlers of the world.

The first book in the series, Mindful of Murder, was one of my favourite books in 2022. Contemplation of Murder will be a contender in 2025.

****

Juby, Susan - (2022) - Mindful of Murder and Butlers in Fiction and Real Life and Exchange with Susan; (2024) - A Meditation on Murder and Susan Juby's Butler

An Insignificant Case by Phillip Margolin

(28. - 1271.) An Insignificant Case by Phillip Margolin - Charlie Webb is average in appearance. He was an average student in school and university, who scraped into Oxford School of Law, a below average law school. After graduating he sets up as a solo practitioner in Portland, Oregon as “nobody offered him a job”. 

Representing members of the Barbarians motorcycle club provides him with “steady customers”.

Charlie may be an average guy but he is above average in the courtroom. He deftly succeeds on an application claiming there was an illegal search of a Barbarians member’s car for drugs. He pins down the investigating Sergeant’s story of an inventory search and then exposes the truth by getting a rookie officier, testifying for the first time, to admit the Sergeant told him to search for drugs.

Charlie is chugging along when his life is upended by Guido Sabatani (he refuses to acknowledge his real name of Lawrence Weiss). While a mathematical genius, accomplished card counter and excellent painter, Guido is crazy. He asserts he is the re-incarnation of a Renaissance painter who studied with Da Vinci and Michaelangelo. Guido’s life is devoted to his art.

He creates a vivid impression for, at 6’4”, he is normally wearing “a white floor-length caftan that was secured at the waist by a gold rope. His thick blond hair flowed over his shoulders and his downy beard and moustache framed a beatific smile”.

Guido, having sold a painting to restaruanteur, Gretchen Hall, steals back the painting because she has it in her office and not on display in her restaurant. He takes a flash drive to have a bargaining chip to convince her to display the picture in the restaurant.

Charlie is his court appointed counsel. A simple case. All he has to do is persuade Guido to return the painting and charges will be dropped.

Before Charlie can deal with the case, Hall and movie producer, Leon Golden, are arrested for “running a sex ring that trafficked underage girls”.

The insignificant case becomes very significant when Guido is charged with murdering Hall and Golden’s bodyguard, Yuri Makarov.

Guido insists that either Charlie represent him or he will defend himself. I admired Charlie for doing his best to convince Guido he lacks the experience to conduct a murder trial. When he is promised experienced co-counsel he takes on the case. He is relieved when prominent Portland defence lawyer, Henry Roman, joins him. He is ecstatic when Roman agrees to be lead counsel.

The thriller element accelerates with an attack at Guido’s farm. Fortunately, while he is confident God will protect him Guido accepts security.

There are conspiracies afoot. When the allegations of abuse reach out to the rich and powerful it becomes impossible to know who you can trust. Charlie gives off a sense of naivete at times as he respects people but he realizes he must be suspicious when dealing with a conspiracy.

There are excellent twists I never saw coming.

There is more thriller than legal mystery. Usually I find lawyers in the midst of thrillers not credible but Charlie is an exception. He focused on being a lawyer.

There is a trial which involves the question of morality and the law. It is described as a conflict in the book rather than a question.

The trial is like a movie version of a trial where the questions are condensed to the bare minimum unlike Scott Turow’s books where the evidence and questioning by prosecutor and defence counsel are explored at length. The resolution is plausible.

What is striking is how little time is spent in the minds of the characters. We know something about the main characters but virtually nothing about the lesser characters beyond their actions.

Margolin is very skilled at driving the narrative and creating action scenes. I would have loved to have read more court scenes.

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

(27. - 1270.) Guide Me Home by Attica Locke - In 2019 Texas Ranger, Darren Mathews, is tired. Donald Trump’s actions as President have worn him down. The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas task force was shut down after Trump was elected before it could indict anyone. The local DA, having failed in 2017 and 2018 to get him indicted for obstruction, is running for Congress and threatening another grand jury. Darren is deeply concerned by the polarization of America as the 2020 elections near. He is weary of being a black man with a badge trying to safeguard black folks. He feels guilty over how he handled a handgun he thought was involved in murder. He was dishonest in an investigation. Jim Beam has become his best friend. He has lost hope. He turns in his badge.

Randie, the wife of a murder victim in the first book of the series Bluebird, Bluebird, has become his lover. She joins him in his country family home outside Camilla in East Texas. It is time for a new life.

His mother, Bell, appears. She is trying to get back in his life. He resolutely declines, unwilling to forgive a lifetime of maternal bad behaviour. He cannot believe she has given up drinking.

Bell wants him to investigate the disappearance of a young black woman student from a white sorority house at Stephen F. Austin University because no one in Texas officialdom cares. Darren is uninterested.

He loves Randie, has his grandmother’s ring and is ready to propose to her, but a discussion over the missing girl while he is drinking turns into an argument. Darren can be a mean drunk and, after a cruel remark, Randie leaves. He blacks out during a two day binge.

When he awakes he starts searching for the missing girl, Sera Fuller, with the aid of Bell. They form one of the most complex teams in crime fiction. His mother let his uncles take him when he was a day old. She provides information on his father who died before Darren was born that shakes him to his core. There are abundant feelings of guilt for both of them. Locke writes powerfully over the fraught mother / son relationship.

His mother, Randie and his Uncle Clayton all love him but each relationship is fractured. Can he, does he want to, will he work on each relationship?

Sera’s parents work for a meat processing plant, Thornhill, that has company housing. They are appreciative of the company even though a terrible smell pervades the company town. Sera’s father is a Trump supporter.

The desperation of America’s working poor concerning access to medical care is an overwhelming issue for the black families. We have issues in the Canadian health care system but not like the United States.

Darren is forced to face what happened in the murder investigation of Bluebird, Bluebird. It is a rare book that addresses consequences for the police.

Darren was a good Texas Ranger but a former Texas Ranger has no authority. A former black Ranger has even less status but he refuses to give up on the investigation. More and more he wonders why the white leaders of Thornhill are concerned about a teenage black girl.

Standing on your own without help from others is ingrained in the black and white psyches of America. To a Canadian it is a puzzle. You can be independent while standing with others. 

There is a trial with a witness who surprises everyone.

The layers in the conclusion are amazing. Each was entirely credible but I never saw them coming. A conscience is a heavy burden for a good man.

The trilogy of Darren Mathews has a fitting ending in Guide Me Home. Attica Locke is a remarkable writer.

****

Locke, Attica - (2016) - Pleasantville; (2017) - Black Water Rising and Wishing I had Read the Books in Order; (2018) - Bluebird, Bluebird and The First Black Texas Ranger in Real Life and Fiction; (2019) - Heaven, My Home