Bronx Justice-Joseph Teller

Bronx Justice
Joseph Teller
Mira, Apr 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 0778326357

In 1979 former legal aid attorney Harrison J. Walker struggles to make a success of his legal practice having gone private because he could no longer handle the stupidity of what was expected of him; which rarely was in the interest of his indigent client. In the middle of the night Jay receives a call from a distressed woman who begs him to defend her son. Inez Kingston says her adult child Darren has been accused of five counts of rape. Jay agrees to defend Darren.

In the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, five different women picked Darren as their attacker. The DA believes it has an iron-clad case. Jay reluctantly agrees, but will insure he mounts the best defense he can. After interviewing his client, Jay begins to believe perhaps Darren is innocent. However, with each woman adamant even Jay goes back to his original position of guilty. Still as this case works through the process, Jay knows this case has fundamentally changed how he looks at the system. Decades later with his spouse dead for ten years and their daughter in her thirties, he knows the Castle Hill rapist case will always haunt him.

Jaywalker’s second legal thriller (see THE TENTH CASE) is once again an insightful look at the dysfunctional American jurisprudence system from the perspective of an attorney whose outlook on defending his clients is much different than the typical lawyer. This case occurs much earlier than the previous book as this time the relatively inexperienced Jaywalker learns the tricks of the trade in a defense that haunts him three decades later. With a historical feel to the pre-DNA legal system of the 1970s, fans will enjoy Joseph Teller’s deep look at injustice, American style.

Harriet Klausner