I read this book for the Mount
TBR 2018 Reading Challenge.
Settled out of
Court - Henry Cecil
The English judge Henry Cecil (1902 - 1976) wrote comic
legal fiction. Think of John Mortimer’s Rumpole
stories. Cecil is more intellectual and gentle and less acerbic and cynical, but
just as clever, funny, and enjoyable.
In Settled out of
Court, Cecil examines the odd case of Lonsdale Walsh. The wealthy self-made
financier has been sentenced to life upon being found guilty of masterminding the
hit and run killing of his business partner Adolphus Barnwell. In prison he
turns his acute mind to getting out of his predicament. Money is no object to
him so with his daughter and a recently released pal Lonsdale arranges for a
versatile crook to help him break out of chokey and kidnap a judge, two
attorneys, the dodgy witnesses and Barnwell's feisty widow, Jo. Lonsdale’s goal
is to re-examine the parties and prove he was convicted on perjured evidence.
Henry James said that Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs had a “hard
lucidity.” Cecil’s lucidity is light, with plain prose, dazzling dialogue, and
difficult legal points explained gracefully and comprehensibly. Fans of comic
novels, courtroom fiction, and dry English humor will enjoy this short novel.
Other Novels – click on the title for the review
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