Paperback: All trials are trials for one's life, just as all sentences are sentences of death. - De Profundis, Oscar Wilde
The last time Tess de Vere saw William Benson, she was a law student on work experience. He was a 21-year-old, led from the dock of the Old Bailey to begin a life sentence for murder.
He had said he was innocent.
She had believed him.
Sixteen years later, Tess overhears a couple of hacks mocking a newcomer to the London Bar, a no-hoper with a murder conviction, running his own show from an old fishmonger's in Spitalfields. That night she walks back into Benson's life. The price of his rehabilitation - and access to the bar - is an admission of guilt to the killing of Paul Harbeton, whose family have vowed revenge.
He is an outcast. The government wants to shut him down, and no solicitor will instruct him. But he is subsidised by a mystery benefactor, and a desperate woman has turned to him for help: Sarah Collingstone, mother of a child with special needs, accused of slaying her wealthy lover. It is a hopeless case, and the murder trial, Benson's first, starts in four days. The evidence is overwhelming, but, like Benson long ago, she swears she is innocent.
Tess joins the defence team, determined to help Benson survive. But as Benson follows the twists and turns in the courtroom, Tess embarks upon a secret investigation of her own, determined to uncover the truth behind the death of Paul Harbeton on a lonely night in Soho.
True to life, fast-paced and absolutely compelling, Summary Justice (2017) introduces a new series of courtroom dramas featuring two maverick lawyers driven to fight injustice at any cost and is a much welcome recital to modern courtroom thrillers in the UK as there has been a dearth in this field for a long time.
Blind Defence, the second book in the Benson and De Vere Series set in London, will be released in April 2018.
About the author: John Fairfax is the pen name of William Brodrick who practised as a barrister before becoming a full-time novelist. Under his own name, he is a previous winner of the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award and his first novel was a Richard and Judy Book Club Selection.
Rating: 5/5
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