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John Fairfax previously worked as a barrister, and reading Summary Justice , the author's first Benson and De Vere novel, you can't half tell. It's a courtroom drama that knows its legal procedure and case history, as well as being well up to date with current techniques and new innovations being made into criminal investigation. As a barrister you would also expect the author to be convincing when it comes to people; understanding what makes them tick, what their motivations and behaviour is likely to be, and how capable they are of committing a crime. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on that one. That might not matter so much if Summary Justice  can begin its series with a thrilling case that introduces an unlikely criminal case team that will take on and win what seems to be impossible cases. It certainly starts out that way at least with its ambiguous characterisation of William Benson. Benson has served 11 years for murder, a murder evidently that he maintains he d...

Brodrick’s latest novel finds another investigation worthy of the ability and insight of Brother Anselm, a monk previously trained as a lawyer. It’s an understanding of not only the law but the deeper motivations of the human spirit that is required in A Whispered Name , and what greater mystery could there be than the personal events and upheavals endured by young men and boys under the command of unfathomable laws in the trenches of WWI? A mysterious visitor to the Larkwood monastery reveals and unknown aspect to the life of one of its oldest inhabitants, the founder of the monastery itself, Fr. Herbert Moore and his part in the sentencing of a young Irishman, Private Joseph Flanagan, charged with desertion during the battle for Passchendaele in 1917. Fr Moore however is now dead, leaving the events and incomplete accounts of the incident shrouded in secrecy. What drove a young Irishman to fight alongside the English? Why did he risk an unknown, perhaps personal mission that could se...

Realising that she doesn’t have long left to live, court prosecutor Elizabeth Glendenning leaves behind the work she has accumulated on a particular case in a safe deposit box, entrusting a key with her former deputy, Anselm Duffy, who has since left the court service to become a monk. The case that has occupied the attentions of Elizabeth is an old one, a seemingly minor case that some tenants brought against their landlord, Graham Riley. Elizabeth’s defence of Riley’s case was successful, but the acquittal of her client has had some serious repercussions in the subsequent years, and Elizabeth’s conscience makes her is determined to make amends. Her death leaves the case in the hands of her son Nick and Anselm, with only a few posthumous letters and the testimony of Blind George – a homeless man with no short-term memory – the only clues to unravelling the mystery of Riley and the Pieman. I haven’t read Brodrick’s previous novel The Sixth Lamentation  and I don’t put much stock by...