Perjury
A Novel
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From a writer and trial judge poised to join the ranks of Scott Turow and Lisa Scottoline, Perjury is a fast-paced courtroom drama about lies, sexual abuse, and the conflict between law and justice.
Jack Brenner, a burned-out public de-fender from Chicago, has left lying clients and political maneuvering behind to take on the more lucrative, predictable routine of a civil lawyer in a small Michigan town. But when the court assigns him to defend a woman accused of perjury, he is swept back into the labyrinth of the criminal justice system--and into a nest of small-town politics, greed, and revenge.
His client, Davey Alden, has admitted she lied on the stand, fabricating the incidents when she claimed her husband Joel Alden sexually abused their young daughter. Outraged by Davey's deceit, the town and the legal system have shifted their sympathies to her husband, one of the most powerful men in the county. A quick, open-and-shut trial is expected.
Brenner faces a vengeful prosecutor, a political judge, hostility from the press, and overwhelming evidence and public opinion against Davey. Fueled by his growing attraction to his seductive client, Jack Brenner has a case he cannot win and must not lose--for if Davey is convicted, not only will she face time in jail, but her daughter will be surrendered to Joel's custody. And Brenner has reason to believe that even if Davey is guilty of perjury, Joel is far from innocent.
Stan Latreille tells a riveting tale of the law as it is practiced behind the closed doors of a judge's chambers and in the public eye--how guilt and innocence, means and ends, morality and justice are served, and failed, by the law.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Possibly the best first novel by a sitting Michigan judge since Robert Traver's Anatomy of a Murder, Latreille's noir tale of a lawyer trying to defend a treacherous, needy client is an engrossing, contemporary throwback to its classic precursor. Burnt out from a failed marriage and 20 years as a Chicago public defender, narrator Jack Brenner comes back to Michigan to join a suburban Detroit law firm. Jack is required to handle the pro bono defense of Davey Alden, accused of perjury after claiming that her husband, Joel, sexually abused their four-year-old daughter. The case looks hopeless for Davey, who has admitted in court that she lied. Driven by curiosity and by a growing attraction to Davey, Jack soon grows convinced that Joel Alden is at least a potential abuser. The complex plot involves Davey's promiscuity, Jack's fascination with Davey, Joel's ex-wife and their daughter (a teenage suicide), a shady real estate deal, an old diary, nail-biting courtroom scenes and a post-trial bombshell. Central to all this is mercurial, manipulative Davey and her own slowly revealed history of childhood abuse, which Latreille depicts with effective restraint. All the characters are interesting (although Jack and Dr. Ann Mahoney, his septuagenarian, martini-drinking, tart-tongued Catholic neighbor, are the only sympathetic members of the cast). This compelling new voice, schooled in Chandler and Hammett, knows what draws us to courtroom drama: "Character is what every trial is about. It is always relevant. That's why the law is so afraid of it." By the time they reach the bittersweet ending, readers will agree.
