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John Morgan Wilson's Benjamin Justice series isn't what you'd call a laugh a minute. Justice is a gay disgraced former journalist who had to hand back his Pulitzer Prize when it was discovered he invented the award-winning story (done to bring to the public's attention the plight of those with HIV and AIDS). He's a reformed alcoholic, is HIV+ and lives frugally in a converted garage in some friends' back garden. Oh, and he's blind in one eye. MOTH AND FLAME is the sixth in the series and is as heart-stopping as its predecessors, albeit in a slightly less frenetic way. The memory of some of the violence inflicted on Justice in the earlier books still makes me want to cower behind the sofa -- and I thought I had a fairly strong stomach! Justice is still bumping along on the breadline, despite being given an advance to write the memoirs of his, erm, eventful life (oh yes, I forgot to say that he was an abused child who killed his father to protect his younger sister when he was in his teens . . .) But he's finding that taking Prozac to combat all the awful things that have happened to him has dampened his creative abilities. When Justice is offered the chance of some freelance writing, he accepts with alacrity -- despite the original writer, Bruce Bibby, having been killed in a break-in. The job is to produce a booklet for the City of West Hollywood's 20th anniversary celebrations. It's seemingly an innocuous task, but Benjamin soon finds himself tangled up with property developers, a young Russian with a lot of secrets to hide, a slimy psychologist with some controversial research on the brain patterns of criminals, and the disappearance of a handyman more than 20 years previously. MOTH AND FLAME is one of those books firmly rooted in a location -- that of Hollywood and Los Angeles. But the issues Morgan Wilson examines could be taking place in any city, anywhere in the world. He does, though, provide us with a contrast between the glossy world of the movie stars -- often spotted as Benjamin and Alexandra dine out -- and that of the Russian refugees. The constants in the Justice books are Benjamin's landlords Maurice and Fred, and his best friend Alexandra Templeton. She's a beautiful, wealthy black journalist whose own life has undergone turmoil -- her partner was murdered in the previous book, BLIND EYE. Her character in this book seems to undergo some drastic changes -- one of which you might not be totally convinced by. But her behaviour in pursuit of a story gives Justice some intriguing dilemmas. Even though he is not the easiest man to like, his strong sense of ethics in many ways make him the typical upright hero. The Justice series has quite rightly garnered Morgan Wilson a raft of awards, including the Edgar and the Lambda Literary award, but he's still a neglected writer. Whether this is because he writes about a gay man, I wouldn't like to say, but he certainly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos. MOTH AND FLAME is a compelling book, and up there as one of my books of 2004. John Morgan Wilson is a crime writer who has something to say. He should be listened to.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, December 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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