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
Many thanks for the blog tour support James x
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