Trial (Signet) - Softcover

Young Texas attorney Warren Blackburn was watching his career go to hell in a handbasket. Falling for a client's sob story had pushed him into telling a little white lie . . . and cost him a year's suspension. Now he's back in the courtroom with not one, but two clients accused of murder. The rich, gorgeous owner of a topless bar is guilty as sin . . . and he's going to make a bundle fighting to get her off. The poor Mexican laborer is innocent and will probably get the death penalty . . . unless Blackburn risks everything--his career, his wife, and even his life--for justice. Real justice.

The courtroom scenes are breathtaking in Irving's ( The Angel of Zin ) new novel. Warren Blackburn practices criminal law in Houston, in the same Harris County courthouse where his late father was a respected judge. When he executes a perjurious affidavit on behalf of a client whom he foolishly trusted, Warren is suspended from practice for a year. Upon his return, he is relegated to the detritus of criminal defense work, until he suddenly becomes counsel to two defendants in murder cases, one celebrated. Warren discovers that one of his clients was likely the actual murderer in the other case, but lawyer-client confidentiality prevents disclosure, and he is trapped in a Kafkaesque dilemma. Although the plot holds few surprises, Irving's development of the trial-related issues is masterful, providing gripping suspense. Similarly, while some of the extralegal parts of the narrative (Blackburn's marital problems, his predictable affair with a court stenographer) are rather contrived, the court proceedings, strategy and testimony are authentic and first-rate; and the cross-examination of the one pivotal "eyewitness" is riveting.
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