Robak in Black: A Don Robak Mystery - Hardcover

Hensley, Joe L.

9780312241094: Robak in Black: A Don Robak Mystery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312241097 ISBN 13: 9780312241094

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2001

Five years ago, Don Robak set aside his practice as an attorney to take up a new one - that of judge. But his wife Jo is suddenly stricken with a strange illness that leaves her robbed of much of her memory, strength, and in need of professional care and leaves Don alone, bereft, and convinced that Jo's illness was a planned attack and not an accident of fate. Though he lacks evidence, Robak has plenty of suspects of whom the major ones include the Wolfers, a local clan of tax rebels whose patriarch Damion Darius Wolf is out for revenge after Judge Robak sentenced his son to death. The other is Libby Macing, the daughter and principle of local powerhouse Macing Drugs, with whom Robak was once involved and now is part of a lawsuit against Macing Drugs that is being tried in Robak's court.

It soon becomes clear that something nefarious is going on, that some tie exists between the much feared Wolfers and their opposite on the social scale, the Macing clan. As threats against Robak and his sick wife persist and intensify, Robak finds his old instincts beginning to kick in. Determined to remain impartial during the trial being heard before him, he is equally determined to find out the truth of the situation before he and his loved ones fall victim to whomever is pulling the strings behind the scene.

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From Publishers Weekly:

Veteran Hensley's latest Don Robak mystery displays the careful writing, thoughtful tone and absolutely nailed characters familiar from past installments in the series. Since his last appearance (Robak's Witch, 1997), Robak has been promoted from defense attorney to circuit judge in the small town of Bington, Ind., but as a judge he's made some unpopular decisions. When his beloved wife, Jo, falls suddenly and deathly ill, Robak feels sure that she was poisoned. Though Jo survives, she is utterly incapacitated and disoriented. Among those who might have it in for Robak and therefore Jo is the family of Sweetboy Wolfer, a particularly nasty piece of work who raped and killed two little girls and is now sitting on death row, thanks to Judge Robak. Another possible deadly foe is the Macing Drug Company, the biggest business in town. Robak and Libbie Macing, one of the company's co-owners, were an item 20 years before, and there are moments when Libbie doesn't seem to get that it's over. Robak is trying a case involving the Macings, and it's unlikely the outcome will please the powerful family. Robak is unusual among fictional crime-solvers. No hot-headed hero, he considers everything and often opts for the safer path. The measured manner of the good judge occasionally manifests itself as stilted prose or a bit too much exposition, but usually it works well. Robak is surrounded by a delightful array of cronies who live up to their quirky names: Preacher Smyth, Sheriff Jumper Jimp and the Reverend Mo Mellish. Robak finds them good company, and chances are the reader will, too.

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