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At different times in his career, PI John Francis Cuddy has been hired by lawyers to assist them in investigations involving their clients. Such is the case here when Steve Rothenberg asks Cuddy to help find proof of the innocence of a man named Alan Spaeth. Spaeth is accused of killing a well known black divorce lawyer and former Assistant District Attorney by the name of Woodrow Wilson Gant. He had a loud public disagreement with Gant, and his fingerprints are all over the shells of the bullets in the gun that was used to kill him, a gun that Spaeth claims was stolen from him just weeks before the murder. Add on to that the fact that Spaeth is a racist, and it would seem likely that he would be the perpetrator. Especially since Gant was representing Spaeth's wife in their divorce action, and Spaeth feels like there was some client/attorney hanky panky going on. Spaeth is a racist jerk, and Cuddy doesn't like him at all. But that doesn't change the fact that he believes that he may be innocent, so he consents to take on the case. Doing so causes some difficulty with his significant other, an assistant district attorney by the name of Nancy Meagher, who's had prior dealings with Gant. In fact, she's so disturbed by that connection that she refuses to see Cuddy until the investigation is concluded. It seemed an extreme action given the reason for the rift, but generally speaking, Healy didn't excel at depicting this relationship in the first place so it was hard to argue with. There are a couple of angles to the case. The first is the odd fact of a white man killing a black man which is statistically abnormal in Boston homicide. A black homicide detective is assigned to the case which is supposed to guarantee that the white guy is not getting any favors. Secondly, there's a Eurasian gang element involved, guys that have turned the system on its ear and are profiting in real estate as well as robbery. Gant once prosecuted gang members, so his killing may have been the result of an old grudge. When another lawyer from Gant's firm is murdered, a woman who just happened to be involved with the gang leader, the motivations become quite murky. Healy did a good job of keeping the motivation for the murder under wraps until the conclusion of the book, with a plethora of red herrings. He is a serviceable writer, but his books are pretty much standard PI fare. Cuddy investigates by interrogating a lot of people, "rattling cages" as he puts it, very repetitively, I might add. The villain pretty much uncovers himself and provides a complete dialogue and rundown of everything he did and why. I'm not particularly fond of that sort of denouement; I'd prefer the investigator to uncover the evidence and reveal it to us along the way instead of having us sit down and have it presented to us by a lesser character. The book ends abruptly, with the reader looking for the rest of the ending-I thought some pages were missing! Based on the fact that I had very similar reactions to the first Cuddy book that I read, I'm not planning to continue with the series in the future. I never had a special connection to either of the books, although I'm sure that many other readers feel differently as evidenced by the fact that there are more than 10 books in the series.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, February 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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