Blog Tour! - One Law for the Rest of Us by Peter Murphy - Blog Tour!

This is a legal thriller set in the English legal system of the 1970’s. The author, Peter Murphy, spent his career in the legal system, as an advocate (barrister) and judge, and thus the novel has a strong basis in realism. Peter Murphy is the author of twin series, the barrister Ben Schroeder, of which this is number six, and the Judge Walden series. The Ben Schroeder series are serious legal thrillers, while the Judge Walden series is more light-hearted. One Law for the Rest of Us is the first of the Ben Schroeder novels that I’ve read, though I have previously read one of the Judge Walden series (my review of which, can be read here: https://bit.ly/2A40KgA).

While One Law for the Rest of Us is the sixth book in the Ben Schroeder series, it can easily be read as a standalone (as I indeed did) and there’s no need to have read the previous novels to enjoy this one. The story is of Audrey Marshall, a woman who sends her daughter Emily to the religious boarding school where she herself was once a pupil. Emily reports to her mother that she’s been abused, which awakens memories in Audrey of her own abuse when a pupil at the school. She reports the abuse and Ben Schroeder is appointed barrister for the prosecution. Quickly, however, it becomes apparent that the abuse has been perpetrated by seriously powerful members of the establishment who are determined not to be exposed.

Two things will be apparent from this brief description of the plot. The first is its timeliness, dealing as it does with abuse by powerful people. In recent years, with the revelations concerning Jimmy Saville, the MP Cyril Smith, and other powerful paedophiles who abused and whose abuse was either covered up or ignored, the full scale of how such things were swept under the carpet in the period this novel occurs has become known. The second thing to note is that this novel tackles the sensitive and upsetting issue of child abuse, and there are parts of this book where this is discussed, which can be quite hard to read.

Being a legal thriller set in the English legal system, this is very different from those legal thrillers, such as the novels of John Grisham, set in the US system. The English judiciary is much soberer than its American counterparts: there are no lawyers leaping to their feet to shout ‘Objection’; there are no gun-toting Mafiosi, shoot outs or car chases. That said, this novel lacks nothing in tension. In fact, this is an incredibly tense novel, as Schroeder and his colleagues use their analytical skill to probe the evidence and unearth the truth.

One Law for the Rest of Us is a novel that packs a punch and if I have one criticism it is that at times elements of the plot are unearthed in exposition. This was most apparent at the very beginning of the novel where Ben and his colleagues divulge some back story from a previous novel in dialogue that I found unconvincing. Ironically, this was superfluous to the plot, for as noted, this novel can be read as a standalone. That said, this is a small matter and did not detract from my enjoyment of what is otherwise an excellent legal thriller.

4 out of 5 stars

Fukushima Dreams by Zelda Rhiando

This is a meditative novel about the effect of the Fukushima disaster on one estranged family. Sachiko and Harry, a Japanese woman and her English husband, have moved to the fishing village of Taro in Fukushima Prefecture. They have a baby son, Tasha. Harry was an English teacher, with plans on writing a book based in Japanese folklore, ambitions that have been put aside due to the obligations and pressures of his new family. This is something he greatly resents. Sachiko suffers from post-natal depression, something for which she has received little help.

At the start of the novel the tsunami hits and Sachiko is nearly killed. She awakes in a shelter for survivors, the whereabouts of her husband and son unknown to her. Harry has also survived, though we learn that for months he has been hoarding supplies in a secret den in the hills, planning on abandoning his wife and child. He also doesn’t know whether his wife and son have survived, but nor does he care. A deeply selfish man, he sees his wife and sons a burden and one that he is simply happy to have escaped from.

Yet Harry, now alone in the wilderness is soon visited by visions of his son, Tashi. Submerged in Japanese folklore as he has been, are these visions signs of his losing his grip on sanity, or are they actually demons come to haunt him? As the novel progresses, both characters grip on reality is threatened and the story becomes progressively more surreal and dark.

Both Harry and Sachiko are estranged from their respective families. Harry sees nothing in left in Britain for him and indeed this is one of the reasons he came to Japan in the first place. Sachiko for her part separated from her family after meeting Harry. They wanted much for her and were disappointed by her life choices. Now in the aftermath of the disaster, and separated from each other as they are, they are both adrift with no kin to fall back on. 

Having never been to Japan, I can’t attest to how accurate the author portrays Japanese society and the tensions that underlie it, but it certainly accords to what I’ve read over the years. The novel is particularly strong on this and the author highlights both the strengths and limitations. For example, early on in the novel we learn that post-natal depression is not something Japanese society really grapples with, that due to ideas of family probity neighbours are reluctant to interfere if they see a mother struggling and doctors just proscribe drugs. On the other hand, Sachiko also reflects on the strengths of the Japanese system, how the unspoken rules that keep people in line ensure an ordered and peaceable society, and that she allowed Harry’s constant denigration of such facets of Japanese life to influence and drive a wedge between herself and the systems which might have helped her in her time of need.

Fukushima Dreams can be seen as a meditation on the disaster, Japanese society, and perhaps most of all, bonds of family. For it is precisely because Harry And Sachiko have cut their ties with relatives that they are so adrift and thus vulnerable to mental breakdown. This is a deeply unsettling novel and at times upsetting and challenging, but it’s well worth a read.

3 out of 5 stars

No Good Brother by Tyler Keevil

If this novel is ever made into a movie, it will be called a road movie of sorts. For that’s what No Good Brother is, a road movie of a novel. Tim Harding works as a deckhand on a fishing trawler. Come the end of the fishing season, the crew are washing down the ship and stowing away the equipment when Tim’s brother, Jake, shows up. Jake is an ex con, a drifter, and a dreamer, a man who tends to slide from trouble to trouble.

Jake tells Tim that he needs help repaying a debt. Tim senses that no good will come from him agreeing to go along with his brother, but Jake is nothing if not good at manipulating his older brother and tugging on his heart strings. This is especially true because their sister, Sandy, the anchor who held their family together, died in a hit and run a few years back. The loss of Sandy left the brother’s bereft and Tim believes Jake wouldn’t have gone so off the rails if it wasn’t for her death. 

So it isn’t long before Tim, against his better judgement, agrees to assist. Jake tells Tim the job is just a simple one, that to repay his debt they have to drop something off for the Delaney’s, a violent crime family. Tim reckons on the job being a drug drop or something similar and is alarmed to learn that it is in fact to steal and transport a race horse. What’s more, they have to transport the horse across the international border, from Canada to the United States. So begins a madcap journey across country, the brothers first trying to transport the horse by land, before stealing the boat Jake worked on and transporting it by sea. 

No Good Brother is a novel of many levels. On the surface, it is a crime novel: the brothers commit a crime, the stealing and transferring of a horse, and there is a gang of violent criminals pulling their strings. On a broader level it is a journey, a tale of two men travelling the ocean. I have zero nautical knowledge, but the author seems to know his stuff; the book is packed with information on how Tim sails the boat and navigates the open sea. This isn’t info dumped, but rather perfectly calculated to the tale, so that the author spins what feels to be an authentic story. There’s a real sense of the environment the brothers find themselves in, a sense of place if you will, the ocean brought to life. But so too is Canada. If like myself readers haven’t visited the country, it’s easy to imagine the picture postcard vision: forests, bears, Mounties and Maple syrup. Here is a grittier Canada of working class men scraping by, dive bars and violence.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this is a story about relationships. Road movies and their novel counterparts are about personal growth, the characters’ internal journeys mirroring the external, as they learn something important about themselves. No Good Brother is no exception and the brothers, their relationship rocky at the outset, learn some hard truths and gain insights, some not too welcome, into each other and their shared histories. 

I thoroughly enjoyed No Good Brother and Tyler Keevil is an impressive and talented writer. One of the reasons I review books is for the opportunity to find new authors whose work I can enjoy and this is one such author. I will definitely be checking out his back catalogue.

4 out of 5 stars