Indictment for Murder
A Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In this startling novel, Rawlinson superbly examines the moral dilemma of ends and means and offers an insightful exploration of the darker human tendencies. Between compelling courtroom scenes and powerful flashbacks to the War, Indictment for Murder is a tale of high suspense and devastating revelation.
In the past he had been seated on the judge's bench looking towards the dock in which he now stood... He turned and faced the clerk, who asked a fourth time: 'How say you? Are you Guilty or Not Guilty?'
Jonathan Playfair, Knight of the Realm, sometime Judge of the High Court, is standing trial for the murder of David Trelawney. The two once fought side by side in the mountains of North Africa, and the death of David 50 years later unearths the tainted details of their past together. While the Prosecutor tells the court of Trelawney's death, Jonathan is far away--in the recesses of his mind where memories from North Africa, long buried, pierce and consume him; where he cannot escape having witnessed another man's death in this dark Africa of 50 years past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The trial of a 77-year-old retired judge for murdering a 78-year-old family friend who was a war hero forms the unlikely basis for this stirring psychological study set in England. Jonathan Playfair, Knight of the Realm and onetime Judge of the High Court, is accused of murdering David Trelawney, at whose side he long ago fought against the Germans in North Africa. The case appears straightforward: during a visit to Trelawney, who was bed-bound from a broken ankle and prostate cancer, Playfair was left alone with his old friend while the attendant nurse exited the room. When she returned, she found Trelawney dead, Playfair absent and physical and circumstantial evidence suggesting that Playfair had committed murder. While Rawlinson milks the ensuing trial for plenty of drama and suspense, with some deft surprises for punctuation, it is the psychological history of Trelawney and Playfair's relationship that above all rivets the attention. The bit players, from the troubled trial judge to the inexperienced prosecutor to the high-powered defense counsel, are extremely well drawn and serve admirably to highlight this study of cunning, survival and malevolence hidden by a facade of respectability. Rawlinson (The Caverel Claim, etc.), who was a British MP for 23 years, has demonstrated yet again that the internal struggles of individuals provide the greatest drama and the most intense theater of combat of all.
