Wyatt Matthews readies himself to defend Marvin White against an indictment that he killed 7 women. The main witness against him is Dwayne Thompson who has made a career of snitching on fellow inmates.
Thompson has supplied lots of details allegedly from Marvin.
Unlike The Widow the search for the real killer will be before the trial.
At the same time might there be an alibi for Marvin?
Wyatt rightfully focuses on the facts. There will be no clever legal arguments to save Marvin.
Wyatt is in an awkward position. His lifestyle is so far from Marvin’s life as to make it a challenge to even talk to Marvin about Marvin’s life.
The methodical Wyatt goes to the murder scenes and re-enacts what happened in his mind.
There is drama in Wyatt’s personal life as trial preparation continues. The emotions are visceral. Both Wyatt and Moira are flawed.
Freedman does very well at creating credible surprises.
Wyatt is a relentless investigator. Maybe even a better investigator than lawyer.
428 pages had gone by before the trial starts in an unnamed American large city. I wish Freedman had chosen an actual city or at least a state. I like to visualize the real life city or state.
I was fine with the amount of pre-trial pages. Legal work before trial is intriguing. The trial took 200 pages.
Up to the trial I found it interesting that the prosecutor, Helena, has but a minute role in the book.
The prospective juror questioning, which rarely happens in Canada, had an initial question that defines the difference between a majority of American states and Canada. Jurors were asked if they had problems “handing down a death sentence if the findings in the trial warrant it”. In the book 25% of the potential jurors are disqualified by answering yes. In America, a jury of your peers in a death penalty case is not a jury reflecting the community.
The crime scene photos are shown at the start of the trial by the prosecutor. They are grisly showing not just killing wounds but also wounds that were mutiliation or torture.
The knife wounds and brutalization of the women were consistent through all seven women. They are described in enough detail that it was hard reading.
There are good reasons for prosecutors not trying 7 murders simultaneously that are attributed to one killer. There are bound to be variations from murder to murder. Too many differences risk an acquittal.
Wyatt does a good job of pinning down the prosecution witnesses on specific details.
The trial was riveting. Freedman did well with the court process and testimony. I raced to finish the book.
As the trial is concluding Wyatt rationalizes some of his actions. In real life, your client has to be your concern as defence counsel. No conflicting loyalty can take priority over the accused.
After finding out Freedman had been a screenwriter I realized the story was proceeding in episodes like a T.V. series. They are not defined as episodes butl it made reading easier as I could read it in chunks. His screenwriting background really came through in the ending.
As far as I can tell Freedman has never been a lawyer. His skill in depicting lawyers and court cases had me thinking he was a lawyer. At the end, in the acknowledgements, he thanked David A. Freedman, J.D. for his “great assistance in helping me with all the legal aspects” of the book.
It was interesting to read about a lawyer who could spend months preparing for a single trial. In real life I doubt any lawyer in private practice or legal aid or government or prosecutions would be able to solely concentrate on one case.
I enjoyed Freedman’s book but I rarely want to read 629 pages.
While published 29 years ago in 1997 I found the story stood up well a generation later.
****
Freedman, J.F. - (2026) - Key Witness - Part I
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