Review of William Bernhardt"s Capitol Offense
Because of the colorful characters in William Bernhardt's legal series, I sometimes wonder if he and David E.
Kelley's Alan Shore character in Boston Legal ever channeled each other.
Ben Kincaid, the main character, takes on cases that even Don Quixote might think impossible.
Ben is an idealist.
His muse, legal partner and romantic interest throughout the series is Christina McCall.
People he has helped in the past, including his private investigator Loving and his office manager Jones, help him in his fight for his underdog clients.
In Capitol Offense the client is Dennis Thomas a teacher, whose wife Joslyn slowly dies a tortuous death in a car accident, while the policeman assigned to her disappearance does nothing to find her.
The cop ends up dead.
Kincaid takes on the almost hopeless case of defending the teacher, who is passed out in the same room where the cop is killed.
Therein lies the mystery.
How could he not have done it? The client seems cavalier and clinical in his approach to his own case, which does not warm him to Christina.
Like many of Bernhardt's stories, Ben Kincaid fights an almost impossible uphill battle to get his client acquitted.
The reason his books remind me of Boston Legal is that Bernhardt often gets on his soapbox to quote statistics about his central theme the way Alan Shore did.
In this case it is about how many innocent people end up in jail and how over zealous Americans seem to be about imprisoning their fellow citizens.
This turned out to be timely, since I just saw a documentary called Zero Percent, which followed the lives of several prison inmates.
Other times he focuses on the environment or capitol punishment or some other current issue.
I recommend this series of books, which began with Primary Justice in 1991, especially for those who may want a lighter, cozier approach to the law than authors like Scott Turow or John Grisham present.
Even if you don't begin at the start of the series, you'll need to read the sequel to this one, which ends in a personal cliffhanger for the main character.
The books are a fast read with some humorous, quirky characters and a strong female lead in Christina.
You'll probably learn a little something in spite of yourself, and Bernhardt has the ability to make that learning enjoyable.
He is a former trial attorney.
When he's not writing, he conducts writing workshops and helps publish first time novelists through his publishing company.
Kelley's Alan Shore character in Boston Legal ever channeled each other.
Ben Kincaid, the main character, takes on cases that even Don Quixote might think impossible.
Ben is an idealist.
His muse, legal partner and romantic interest throughout the series is Christina McCall.
People he has helped in the past, including his private investigator Loving and his office manager Jones, help him in his fight for his underdog clients.
In Capitol Offense the client is Dennis Thomas a teacher, whose wife Joslyn slowly dies a tortuous death in a car accident, while the policeman assigned to her disappearance does nothing to find her.
The cop ends up dead.
Kincaid takes on the almost hopeless case of defending the teacher, who is passed out in the same room where the cop is killed.
Therein lies the mystery.
How could he not have done it? The client seems cavalier and clinical in his approach to his own case, which does not warm him to Christina.
Like many of Bernhardt's stories, Ben Kincaid fights an almost impossible uphill battle to get his client acquitted.
The reason his books remind me of Boston Legal is that Bernhardt often gets on his soapbox to quote statistics about his central theme the way Alan Shore did.
In this case it is about how many innocent people end up in jail and how over zealous Americans seem to be about imprisoning their fellow citizens.
This turned out to be timely, since I just saw a documentary called Zero Percent, which followed the lives of several prison inmates.
Other times he focuses on the environment or capitol punishment or some other current issue.
I recommend this series of books, which began with Primary Justice in 1991, especially for those who may want a lighter, cozier approach to the law than authors like Scott Turow or John Grisham present.
Even if you don't begin at the start of the series, you'll need to read the sequel to this one, which ends in a personal cliffhanger for the main character.
The books are a fast read with some humorous, quirky characters and a strong female lead in Christina.
You'll probably learn a little something in spite of yourself, and Bernhardt has the ability to make that learning enjoyable.
He is a former trial attorney.
When he's not writing, he conducts writing workshops and helps publish first time novelists through his publishing company.