Library Limelights 230

 

Scott Turow. The Last Trial. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2020.

Turow outdoes himself, if that is possible, with the latest cerebral thriller in his Kindle County series. Distinguished lawyer Sandy (Alejandro) Stern could not have chosen a more complex case for his final trial before retirement. At the age of eighty-five, his health is compromised but his courtroom strategy is as sharp as ever. His old friend Kiril Pafko, once awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, has been indicted for fraud, insider trading, and murder, prevailing on Sandy to provide his defence. Kiril is head of Pafko Therapeutics (PT), developer of a remarkable new cancer drug called g-Livia. The fraud occurred in the suppression and alteration of data during clinical trials of the drug. The murder charge relates to patients who died from allergic reactions; civil lawsuits are also pending. Insider trading refers to exactly what we expect: selling shares of the company knowing that the high-flying stock will tank when the criminal charges are made public.

Any defence lawyer would have his hands more than full at this prospect. Sandy has his experienced daughter Marta to share trial duties and a small army of office backup. Granddaughter Pinky has a menial role in the preparation; regarded as “on the spectrum” by her family, Pinky rises to the occasion more than once to assist her beloved grandfather. Kiril, too, has a family interest in that his son Lep (Leopoldo) is medical director of PT. Word is that Lep was the brains behind the wonder drug for which Kiril—the socializing, womanizing, some say lying charmer―firmly takes credit. Sandy unravels the story piece by piece, witness by witness, hoping to foil the prosecution even as he analyzes his friendship. Every detail is investigated from FDA procedures to medical and business ethics.

Equal care is paid to Sandy’s inner thoughts and his private interviews with some of the parties. Turow manages to hit many bases—a gay son, autism, a trans journalist, the immigrant experience, the rush to market a drug (think vaccine for Covid-19)―without overdoing it. You may never again come across such an intricate trial at the heart of a satisfying book.

One-liners:

▪ “She knows you well enough to understand how much you’d love your last verdict to be a not guilty, especially in a case no one thinks you can win.” (49)

▪ But Kiril’s polished manner is also a barrier; Stern knows little about Kiril at the core. (91)

▪ “Kiril will not save his neck by putting his son’s in a noose.” (158)

▪ Force and ambition radiate from Olga with solar intensity. (171)

▪ What troubles him is realizing how comfortable he had grown moving through a world of wealth. (215)

▪ Laughter, it turns out, is the soul of liberty. (261)

▪ “You sat where you’re sitting now only a few days ago and lied to my face.” (291)

▪ An entire family, he thinks, and not one of them ever figured out that the best way to deal with Pinky is to compliment her. (312)

▪ She was tired of waiting for Kiril’s world to blow up and decided to light a match. (411)

Multi-liners:

▪ “Ah,” says Pafko with a wry smile. “Make sure you bring earplugs. You will hear terrible things about me. And truth will not be an obstacle. You know what Shakespeare said, Sandy. ‘Hell hath no fury.’” (90)

▪ “He would not leave me alone. Every time he had two drinks, he was on the phone beseeching me to come back to the company, to come back to him.” (103)

▪ Hope, that blind songbird. It flies through the bleakest skies. (374)

▪ “Science is where the truth is in our world,” she said that night in the office. “What once belonged to religion or philosophy is now the business of science. That’s where we’ll learn what’s really unknown about being here on earth.” (447)

Human proportions:

While studying the scientific aspects of Kiril’s trial, he had a startling and sudden recognition of Nature’s plan: We mix and mate as part of her goal to combine and recast DNA. She is eternally looking for a better set of chromosomes. From her perspective, humans are essentially a race of shape-shifters, present temporarily before leaving our genetic material behind. We are all Nature’s fools, tricked by instinct into believing in the importance of The Self. (130)

No friend:

“As I told you, I decided decades ago not to waste my time trying to discipline Kiril. I’m not about to start now. And I can assure you, Mr. Stern, it will take the jaws of life to get me on the witness stand.” Dr. Kateb has no idea of the power of a federal district court judge, even one in a backwater like Kindle County, who could bring him there in handcuffs if he chose to defy a subpoena. (192)

Contempt of court:

“How much money, sir, do you have in your pocket?”

No one moves for a second.

“Your Honor—”

“How much?”

Sullivan reaches into the pocket of his woollen suit, a subtle plaid, and pulls out a pile of bills neatly folded into a gold money clip.

“Four hundred and sixty dollars,” he answers.

“You can keep thirty for a cab to the airport and a hot dog when you get there. Give the rest to the clerk.” (242)

Mick Herron. The Catch. Ebook 2020 (TPL download), New York: Soho Press, Inc. Original publisher Penguin Random House.

I feel so cheated! Cheated, I say. Granted, this was clearly a novella at 168 pages; Herron has published a few of them (e.g. The List, The Drop) that further illuminate some of the almost invisible characters in his Slough House series. But. The Catch actually ended at 125 pages, a mere teaser gobbled in one reading session. I hunger for a sequel to Joe Country. A big, fat, hilarious, in-depth ramble with Jackson Lamb and his sorry misfits. Coming – February 2021, they say.

Meanwhile, John Bachelor, another loser in the spy stakes, was demoted to the job of milkman. That means caretaking, babysitting, for retired old spies like himself. He’s ensconced himself in the flat of one of his recently deceased gentlemen, and thus slyly appropriated a second set of benefits from MI5, aka Regent’s Park, aka the Park. When two threatening heavyweights from the Park visit him, John thinks they’ve come to evict him from his little deceit. Or kill him. But no, they merely want him to locate Benny, one of his cagier charges. John doesn’t have a clue where to find Benny, since he’s been smugly lax about his job of keeping track. Suspicious that the two brutes are working an angle off the official books, John decides to quietly approach the top, which is MI5 First Desk, or Diana Taverner, aka Lady Di.

What Benny has, and what several interested parties want to grab, is indisputable evidence that a certain HRH was deeply involved with a certain American’s underage porn ring ~ oh, such a sly Herron. Lady Di helps the hapless John Bachelor find Benny and from there John is expected to discover exactly what Benny has and where it is. Benny has already attracted a stubborn journalist called Daisy who heard the rumour. Basically the three of them enjoy an extensive piss-up via a number of pubs as John ineptly tries to extract information. It’s one of those double- or triple-cross tangles that Herron works so well. I still feel – you know – a bit cheated.

Teasers

▪ What Benny had been, when you got down to it, was a crook. (24)

▪ “The art of the bribe, John,” Edward said. “Once you’ve made your catch, you can keep the rest of the bait for yourself.” (41)

▪ Benny was still laughing, adding theatre by producing a tissue and wiping his eyes. (96)

▪ “You”—meaning Daisy―“think he’s using me to set you up. And you”—this being Benny―”think the Park’s using me to set you up.” (96)

▪ He could have sworn he’d filled her glass at least once. The possibility that she’d been pouring it on the floor filled him with expensive horror. (102)

▪ The beer and the gin were sloshing about inside him. He felt like a car wash. (107)

▪ “It’s the worst crisis for the monarchy since the death of the princess.” (117)

J.J. Marsh. Behind Closed Doors. 2010. Ebook from Prewitt Bielmann Ltd, 2012.

Half a dozen prominent, powerful businessmen die by suicide in scattered European locations. When the deaths are recognized as too much for coincidence, Interpol quietly puts together an investigation team based in Zurich, headed by Beatrice Stubbs of Scotland Yard. Stubbs is just returning to work after her own suicide attempt and therapeutic leave of absence. Their Swiss consultant, Källin, is a rude jerk, but the others work well together: Dutchman Chris, Estonian Sabine, the unpronounceable Conceição, and Xavier whose regular boss is Källin. Each has their own niche of expertise. Found at each death scene—all staged in different methods―is a trace of the same unknown DNA.

The team has several angles to work from, starting with any common points among the murdered men. A high-profile financial services company called D’Arcy Roth seems to be the sole prospect but its CEO, Antonella D’Arcy, is dismissive and well-alibbied. In flashbacks, the reader witnesses each alleged “suicide’s” final hours in the presence of an enigmatic woman. Behind Closed Doors is the first novel in a series ... and it shows, lacking cohesion and subtleties. The camaraderie between Beatrice and her boyfriend Matthew plays well. But Beatrice falls into a trap so transparent that the climax is anything but. A leak of police information as a piece of plot drama falls flat; we can see the villain coming a mile away. The most egregious editing oversight is a death caused by carbon dioxide poisoning from car exhaust.

While I want to like Beatrice, she is not well-defined and rarely exhibits the authority she’s been given. Nor is her bipolar disorder convincing; covert anxiety is over-simplification. Clearly, technique and character development must have improved as almost a dozen books after this one received popular acclaim.

Teasers

▪ The luck of the devil, his mother used to say, while his brothers called him a jammy bastard. (33)

▪ “All the men in question made highly unpopular decisions or were involved in morally dubious businesses.” (38)

▪ She felt like someone who’d just discovered the reason why walking hurt was because she had her shoes on the wrong feet. (94)

▪ Why would any member of her team leak confidential information? The potential damage could be fatal, stalling the investigation in its tracks, not to mention warning their target. (137)

▪ Hamilton flared his nostrils and raised his eyes to the ceiling, affording Beatrice an unimpeded perspective up his nose. (148)

▪ Her hand felt cool and soft. Chris felt precisely the opposite. (205)

▪ “Governments? Forget it. Their aim is to keep the big boys sweet and the people passive.” (238)

▪ “Nevertheless, I believed they should do the honourable thing and make the world a better place by leaving it voluntarily.” (400)

▪ There had to be a hiding place. Just like a computer; some data visible, some encrypted. But how do you hide a human being? (380)