|
Ben Kincaid, known as Tulsa, Oklahoma's finest criminal defense attorney, is back! William Bernhardt has had quite a run with Kincaid, whose hapless personal life is incongruous with his highly qualified, if not financially rewarding, law practice. Kincaid's incompetent ability with women in general and with law partner (and erstwhile love interest) Christina McCall in particular is also a mainstay of this series. Both appear to be headed toward resolution in CAPITOL MURDER.
Bernhardt has been removing Kincaid from Tulsa, correctly ascertaining that Tulsa would need a murder rate equal to that of a Rob Zombie movie in order to sustain Kincaid's practice. Accordingly, the site du jour of CAPITOL MURDER is Washington, D.C. At the start of the novel, Kincaid is being retained to represent Todd Glancy, the senior U.S. Senator of Oklahoma. Glancy needs Kincaid badly: a videotape has just been released that shows Glancy apparently forcing Veronica Cooper, one of his Senate interns, into involuntary sexual activity. While no criminal charges are being brought, Glancy is concerned about civil actions and political repercussions.
Kincaid and Company barely arrive at Glancy's Senate offices when Cooper is found dead, the victim of a violent and bizarre murder. Naturally, Glancy is charged with the killing. What follows is a variation on the classic fish-out-of-water syndrome, with Kincaid and his firm apparently way out of their league. When Kincaid is involved, however, you're wise to bet on the fish, no matter how much it gasps or how blue it turns while it's flopping around. Hapless as he is in his personal life, Kincaid is an excellent trial attorney. But even he can be hamstrung, and the duplicitous nature of the Washington atmosphere is such that it appears Kincaid has met his match.
Bernhardt, who is always good at creating reprehensible characters for Kincaid to represent, has truly outdone himself in his latest effort. Glancy is about as unsympathetic a character as one could wish for, and if readers harbor a secret hope that Glancy circles the drain for a while and then disappears before the real murderer is unmasked, they can certainly be forgiven.
CAPITOL MURDER has a couple of things going against it. Bernhardt apparently couldn't resist going overboard with some excessive partisan political pontificating, which distracts the reader and takes the book way off track at times. This is unfortunate, to the extent that he risks alienating potential readers who thought they were buying a book and brought home a soapbox instead. There also is a somewhat outlandish red herring that probably will not fool anyone for more than a few pages.
Ultimately, though, CAPITOL MURDER rises above its flaws to become the type of courtroom thriller that one ultimately expects from Bernhardt. Further, longtime readers of the Kincaid novels will find at least one extended plotline resolved in a way that is both satisfying and quite credibly presented and that ultimately will bring them back again to see how things work out. While CAPITOL MURDER may not bring any new fans to the table, it will keep the veterans firmly anchored in their seats.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
 Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
