Capitol Murder by William Bernhardt
Capitol Murder
William Bernhardt
Ballantine Books
2006
Reviewed by: Rob Holden
It is usually fun for me to review the latest installment in a series that I have followed over the course of several years. It is particularly fun when that latest installment happens to be the best thus far. That is the case with Capitol Murder – number thirteen in the series featuring Oklahoma defense attorney Ben Kincaid – by William Bernhardt.
The novel opens with Ben being called to Washington to defend Senator Todd Glancy, who has been caught in a sex scandal. The Senator has called Ben in to help him save his career. But when the young woman involved in the sex scandal is found dead in a secret basement office in the Senate building – on Glancy’s favorite couch – with her throat cut, Ben Kincaid has more to worry about than saving the Senator’s career. After he is arrested and charged with murder, Kincaid must try to save Glancy’s life.
As the novel unfolds, Bernhardt takes his readers inside a Washington that most people never see – and into the inner workings of Government that most people know little or nothing about. At the same time, however, the author shows us a different, darker side of our nation’s capital – one that has nothing to do with the government, one that takes place in the darkness. As Kincaid’s defense team looks into the background of the murder victim, they come upon a hidden world of modern day Goths, and vampiric “circles” in which there exists the ritualistic drinking of human blood. What ensues is a wild ride that takes place at a pace that makes you wish you could turn the pages even faster.
Where this novel really excels, however, is in Bernhardt’s presentation of Senator Glancy’s trial. There has been a trend in recent years for “legal thrillers” to stay out of the courtroom and concentrate, rather on the crimes and criminals themselves – turning their lawyer heroes and heroines into more private investigators than attorneys. In contrast, a good amount of Capitol Murder takes place firmly in the courtroom, and the authors uses his considerable talent for writing compelling and readable dialogue to make this some of the fastest paced fiction I have read in quite a while. When I asked William Bernhardt why he has always bucked the trend to stay out of the courtroom in our chat with him this month at ReadersRoom, he answered: “It's hard to beat a good trial. Conflict in a bottle. All in one room, diametrically opposed parties in combat with words, which works well for a novel, and within that context, you can address virtually any subject.... I enjoy the courtroom scenes. They almost write themselves, perhaps because I worked as a trial attorney for many years. No reader wants you to pause a good trial to describe the light fixtures. It's all verbal warfare.”
Capitol Murder is a fast paced, compelling read, written by an author who – over the course of 12 previous novels – has gotten to know his characters extraordinarily well. The mix of action, courtroom drama and comfortable interaction between his large ensemble cast of characters makes Capitol Murder a must read!
William Bernhardt
Ballantine Books
2006
Reviewed by: Rob Holden
It is usually fun for me to review the latest installment in a series that I have followed over the course of several years. It is particularly fun when that latest installment happens to be the best thus far. That is the case with Capitol Murder – number thirteen in the series featuring Oklahoma defense attorney Ben Kincaid – by William Bernhardt.
The novel opens with Ben being called to Washington to defend Senator Todd Glancy, who has been caught in a sex scandal. The Senator has called Ben in to help him save his career. But when the young woman involved in the sex scandal is found dead in a secret basement office in the Senate building – on Glancy’s favorite couch – with her throat cut, Ben Kincaid has more to worry about than saving the Senator’s career. After he is arrested and charged with murder, Kincaid must try to save Glancy’s life.
As the novel unfolds, Bernhardt takes his readers inside a Washington that most people never see – and into the inner workings of Government that most people know little or nothing about. At the same time, however, the author shows us a different, darker side of our nation’s capital – one that has nothing to do with the government, one that takes place in the darkness. As Kincaid’s defense team looks into the background of the murder victim, they come upon a hidden world of modern day Goths, and vampiric “circles” in which there exists the ritualistic drinking of human blood. What ensues is a wild ride that takes place at a pace that makes you wish you could turn the pages even faster.
Where this novel really excels, however, is in Bernhardt’s presentation of Senator Glancy’s trial. There has been a trend in recent years for “legal thrillers” to stay out of the courtroom and concentrate, rather on the crimes and criminals themselves – turning their lawyer heroes and heroines into more private investigators than attorneys. In contrast, a good amount of Capitol Murder takes place firmly in the courtroom, and the authors uses his considerable talent for writing compelling and readable dialogue to make this some of the fastest paced fiction I have read in quite a while. When I asked William Bernhardt why he has always bucked the trend to stay out of the courtroom in our chat with him this month at ReadersRoom, he answered: “It's hard to beat a good trial. Conflict in a bottle. All in one room, diametrically opposed parties in combat with words, which works well for a novel, and within that context, you can address virtually any subject.... I enjoy the courtroom scenes. They almost write themselves, perhaps because I worked as a trial attorney for many years. No reader wants you to pause a good trial to describe the light fixtures. It's all verbal warfare.”
Capitol Murder is a fast paced, compelling read, written by an author who – over the course of 12 previous novels – has gotten to know his characters extraordinarily well. The mix of action, courtroom drama and comfortable interaction between his large ensemble cast of characters makes Capitol Murder a must read!
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