Description:
When Peter Rawlinson describes the "great mock-Gothic building of the Law Courts in the Strand" and the public gallery of the court of the Chancery Division, his words have a definite edge of authority: he is, in point of fact, a former Lord Chancellor of England. He dedicates his new book to the Tichborne Claimant, star of a famous 19th-century court case, and indeed this story does have a pleasantly old-fashioned appeal. Is Sarah Wilson, the black and beautiful young exotic dancer, really the daughter of the homosexual Julian Caverel who died of AIDS in 1978, and is she thus the legitimate heir to the Caverel fortune? Or is she a shameless opportunist, manipulated first by a Polish nightclub owner and then by an ace London spin-doctor? Rawlinson plays fair, giving evidence for the two sides: both of his battling lawyers seem to have a chance to win their case. And there are satisfyingly shadowy figures working for each team--a tall man who doesn't stop at murder for one side and a stout man who whizzes around the world collecting affidavits for the other. There's also a splendidly tricky ending, which might remind you a bit of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution. Rawlinson's other expert legal thrillers include Hatred and Contempt, His Brother's Keeper and A Price Too High. --Dick Adler
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