Page 71 - January Phonebox Magazine 2012

Book Review
By Oxfam Bookshop, Olney
The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly
Aficionados of crime fiction will be familiar with author Michael Connelly and Harry (short for Hieronymus) Bosch, his detective character solving crime in Los Angeles. More recently he has introduced Michael Haller, a defence lawyer first written about in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ – so called because Haller worked from his Lincoln car since office space was too expensive.
‘The Fifth Witness’ is another novel about Haller. Times are hard and the recession is biting, so Haller and his team find most of their work defending clients whose homes are in jeopardy when the banks threaten to foreclose on non-paying mortgagees. Although the lawyer warns his clients that eventually they will be compelled either to pay up or lose the roof over their heads, his delaying tactics can enable them to keep their homes for a year, at least, giving them breathing space.
It is one of these clients who suddenly calls him after being arrested for the murder of the Vice-chairman of the bank threatening her with foreclosure. His work shifts into another gear, he rents office space and, delegating his other work to a junior associate he devotes his time to proving her innocence.
The reader is given a fascinating insight into American justice, similar yet different in essential details to our own. We are also
King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett
The Dark Ages - that era of conflict and chaos when the Roman Empire endured protracted contraction and collapse, and before Medieval written records began – has been in the popular
treated to a demonstration of the twists and turns employed by a skilled lawyer anxious to prove his client’s innocence. His less experienced associate is perturbed by the fact that Haller is not interested in whether the client is guilty or not, and refuses to allow her to say whether or not she has committed the crime. His sole concern is to win the jury over in order for them to acquit her. How he strives to achieve this makes for a good story.
Michael Connelly is a skilled
storyteller, holding the reader’s
interest from the first page to the
last. This is probably his best book
so far, and makes good reading for
a cold January, when the temptation is to draw the curtains, turn up the central heating and snuggle down with a good book. This is it!
Europe to regain his Orkney inheritance and eventually reaches the Scottish throne.
But this is a story which will end in tragedy, in fact a double tragedy for Thorfinn is known by the Christian world as Macbeth - whose fate we know. But the real tragedy, of course, is that the version of his life which has survived into the modern world is that of the villainous murderer of Shakespeare’s play, not that of the talented and charismatic leader. But then we know that history is written, always, by the winning side.
While academic opinion is divided over the identification of the historical figure Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney as Macbeth, Dorothy Dunnett does present an extremely convincing case. But whether her thesis is true or not she still gives us a gripping story, expertly told which effortless recreates another age and puts you down in the midst of a world which is familiar yet alien amongst people who are at once different and yet have feelings and ambitions about their lives which we can all understand. Dunnett’s books are never an easy read, plots and people are complicated and nuanced, there is always more implication than explanation and you sometimes simply have to keep reading through the bewilderment, knowing that the light will eventually dawn when the pieces fall into place. It is well worth the effort and is not as difficult to do as it sounds – she is a stunningly good writer and can make you live in the past, and care about the people in it, like no-one else.
And if you find yourself hooked by this book there’s the five part ‘Lymond’ chronicles, set in the 16th century, to look forward to next!
Review by Sandra Metcalf
imagination a time of rampaging hoards, of war leaders raping and pillage their way to conquest, of power taken and held only by the sword. In truth all those with power did fight, were warriors first, but they were also diplomats and politicians, Christianity was taking hold alongside the older religions and across Europe new civilisations were flowering as the ancient one of Byzantium slowly died.
In 11th century Scotland Thorfinn, son of the Earl of Orkney and grandson of Malcolm, King of Alba, grows from an angry boy to a talented leader and with the help of his wife Ingibjorg of
Norway, and despite being torn between the traditional Viking life and beliefs and the responsibility
of building the strong Scottish state needed in his changing world, fights and intrigues his way across Scotland, Norway, England and
Review by Thelma Shacklady
Phonebox Magazine 71
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The books reviewed above are from Oxfam Books and Music, Olney, which sells donated books, records, CDs, tapes and music to raise money for Oxfam’s work in combating poverty around the world.