Customer Reviews

Anatomy of a Murder

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This book is based on a true murder case which happened in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula about fifty years ago. The last half of the story is almost entirely courtroom drama and is second to none for suspense in this genre. Not only do we get excellent character development and an exciting story, but also a nice sense of place, as Traver lived in the U.P. much of his life. Additionally, this book contains the most eloquent use of the modern English language I've ever read, particularly the character Parnell's quotes. Highly recommended to fans of courtroom drama or classic literature.

Once in a while, there is a book that I become obsessed with finishing; Robert traver's Anatomy of a Murder is such a book. He perfectly describes each and every delicate procedure undertaken by the book's hero, Paul Biegler, in order to successfully defend a muder charge.

Law is a thing which is immensely hard to understand, yet Traver has a way of explaining it in way that does not bore the reader and does not entirely detract from the story. Traver also has an interesting way of describing a character so that the reader can see them, but doesn't detail much of their physical features.

The best parts of the book (obviously) take place in the courtroom, where the reader will find themselves constantly changing their opinion between Manion's guilt. The part in which Biegler cross-examines the Prosecution's psychiatrist is one of the best chapters I've ever read in a book.

The only two problems with the book is that there is never any resolution with Mary Pilant, and it takes a while to get to the courtroom scenes.

However, if you are looking for a great courtroom drama, and a good read, this is one of the top in its field.

Many contemporary readers seem to find this novel "dated" or "trite." With all due respect, I find this type of thinking analogous to those who say the same about Bronte's "Jane Eyre," never taking the time to realize that she -- like Travers in this instance -- was breaking new ground, setting the standard for successive (and in all too many instances lesser) writers to equal and exceed, if only they could.

In "Anatomy," there is never a question that army Lt. Manion is responsible for the death of tavern owner Barney Quill in a relatively remote "upper peninsula" Michigan locale. Witnesses to the shooting death are hardly in short supply; add to that the fact that Manion himself readily admits to the homicide. What is at issue -- and which, frankly, may remain at issue even after the last page is turned -- is the question of Manion's culpability; was his killing of Quill justified, in the strictest legal sense, or was it otherwise?

Travers leaves that question dangling in the minds of his reader, diverting our attention, rather, to the practice of criminal law and trial strategies; his protagonist, recently-deposed County Prosecutor Paul ('Polly') Biegler, faces an uphill battle against not only his successful rival, Mitch Lodwick, but a high-powered deputy from the state attorney-general's office (from 'downstate' in Flint, Michigan) who promptly emerges as his true antagonist. Relative issues of guilt vs. innocence quickly take a backseat to questions of "gamesmanship" in the trial as Biegler fights to introduce evidence that the prosecution fights equally hard to suppress. "Truth" quickly becomes a secondary issue -- if an issue at all.

Nor are Biegler's problems confined simply to the courtroom; he finds himself entertaining a hearty dislike for his client -- as would most people as well as, one suspects, the man's own wife --even as he finds himself compelled to 'coach' his client through a recounting of the events leading up to the death of Quill (while always remaining within the American Bar Association's canons of conduct) which may or may not provide an "affirmative defense."

Travers chooses to recount his narrative through the first-person, and wisely so. Biegler's account is delivered in a somewhat wry, and at times whimsical, voice that is nonetheless passionate in its love for -- and belief in -- the law and the way it is practiced in the courtroom.

"Anatomy Of A Murder" emerges -- and today, almost 50 years later, remains -- as a classic novel of the American legal process. Anyone who thinks to term this novel as "dated" or "trite" need only to look to the fact that the book is still in publication, and readily available, as opposed to far too many of its "successors" . . .

Robert Traver's 1958 classic, "Anatomy of a Murder," is a prototype of the legal thriller/courtroom drama that has long been a mainstay of popular fiction. However, its value goes beyond its historical importance as a groundbreaking work. It is an engrossing tale of a sensational murder trial that pits a wily prosecutor against a clever and tenacious defense attorney.

Forty-year-old Paul Bieglar (dubbed "Polly" by his cronies) is an ex D. A. who has been replaced by a young upstart, Mitch Lodwick. Paul is at loose ends, with no wife, a faltering legal practice, and little to occupy his time other than drinking and fishing. One day, he gets a telephone call from Laura Manion, whose husband, U. S. Army Lieutenant Frederic Manion, sits in a county jail cell after admitting that he killed the man who allegedly raped his wife. Although Manion has no money to hire a lawyer, Paul believes that this case will bring him valuable publicity. He decides to defend Manion, and Parnell McCarthy, a hard-drinking attorney whose career has faded but who still loves the law, becomes Polly's unofficial partner. Squaring off against them is the aforementioned Lodwick and a much more experienced state attorney named Claude Dancer. As the case proceeds, it becomes a legal morass, with contradictory eyewitness testimony, dueling psychiatrists, heated and, at times, eloquent courtroom exchanges, and an unexpected last-minute witness whose testimony may change the trial's outcome.

Traver accomplishes what few authors of legal thrillers these days even attempt. He creates an indelible sense of time and place as well as fully fleshed out three-dimensional characters. The book is set in a small logging and resort town on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan near Lake Superior. With his evocative descriptive writing, the author captures the atmosphere of this isolated area of wild and untouched beauty, a quiet rural village where everyone knows everyone else, rumors fly around at the speed of light, and old friends sit around in taverns late into the night, swapping stories. The Manion trial rocks the town to its foundations and generates a tidal wave of public interest and excitement.

Besides Polly and Parnell, another notable character is Barney Quill, the alleged rapist, who presumably was a prominent citizen, a man of means, and a tavern and hotel owner known to be an expert marksman, fisherman, and martial arts expert. Why would such an individual suddenly attack a defenseless woman? Claude Dancer, the brains behind the state's case, is articulate, ambitious, and not above pulling a few rabbits out of his hat to catch his opponent off guard. One of the most memorable individuals in the book is Judge Weaver, a brilliant and fair-minded man who bends over backwards to make sure that justice is served in this convoluted case.

The writing in "Anatomy of a Murder" is ornate and old-fashioned by modern standards, but it is also literate and laced with delicious homespun humor as well as fascinating legal arcana. The lawyers resemble boxers who strike blows and are hit in return. Although each man is occasionally bloodied, no one manages to deliver a knockout punch.

A central question posed in this book is one that can never be answered: How sound is a criminal justice system in which charismatic lawyers can bend the truth and manipulate juries? Courtroom dramas are popular because they present humanity at its most elemental, with attorney/gladiators fighting valiantly to win, and willing to do or say anything to achieve victory. Robert Traver wisely recognized the inherent drama that a work of fiction set in a courtroom during a controversial murder trial can generate. "Anatomy of a Murder" was written almost half a century ago and it contained subject matter that was extremely daring for its time. It remains an immensely entertaining and satisfying novel that will fascinate fans of quality courtroom thrillers.

I don't dispute the comments of the other reviewers, but I was struck by something else: this book, along with Scott Turow's "One L" would be an excellent read for anyone considering law as a career, particularly trial law. It gives a sense of the rough-and-tumble of trial work, the mind-numbing hair-splitting that seems to be characteristic of the law, and the ambiguity in which lawyers must conduct their work.

In Thunder Bay, Michigan, hotel and bar manager Barney Quill violently rapes Laura Manion. Laura's spouse Army Lieutenant Frederick Manion explodes into a rage; he fires five shots at Quill killing him. Witnesses saw the homicide and Manion confesses to the crime. The police arrest Manion for murder

Former county Prosecutor Paul Biegler heads up the defense team; his opponent is the lawyer who replaced him as the prosecutor, Mitch Lodwick, also assisted from the Michigan Attorney general's Office. Knowing his client is guilty of the act and in spite of also loathing Manion, Paul hopes to legally defend the murder in the minds of twelve strangers. His plan is to claim his client suffered an "irresistible impulse", an insane rage to get back at the violator of his wife. However, as Paul digs deeper into the background, he begins to uncover other information that puts a different light on the deadly triangular relationship between his client, his client's wife, and the deceased.

This reprinting of a terrific 1950s legal thriller that some insist established the sub-genre (Christie aside) holds up nicely five decades after its initial publishing and movie were made. The story line focuses for much of the first half of the insightful plot on the defense team investigation and building its plea, but though interesting is slow as readers see first hand the strategy and discourse they take; the latter half is the trial with both sides verbose as they make points. Though incredibly perceptive with what happens on a highly charged murder case, talking is not as exciting as performing. Still the tale retains its discerning insider's look at the legal process.

Harriet Klausner

John D. Voelker (1903-1991) originally made his name as a Michigan attorney and judge. In 1952 Voelker became a defending attorney in the Coleman A. Peterson, an army lieutenant accused of the murder of Maurice Chenoweth, who was said to have raped Peterson's wife. In some ways uniquely sordid, in some ways extremely commonplace, it became the basis for ANATOMY OF A MURDER, which Voelker published in 1958 under the pen name Robert Traver. Astonishingly frank in subject and language for its era, the book was an immediate bestseller and went onto further fame as a film starring James Stewart and directed by Otto Preminger.

The story concerns attorney Paul Biegler, a forty-ish man whose career has gone awry for the past several years and who is now more interested in fishing than the court system. Looking for a case that will revive both his career and interest, Biegler finds himself representing Lt. "Manny" Manion, a distinctly unlikeable man who claims that his wife Laura was raped by bar-owner Barney Quill--and who killed Quill in response. A good portion of the book involves Biegler's interviews with Manion and Laura, his concerns about how legitimate the ultra-sexy Laura's claim of rape might be, and his decision to plea a form of insanity known as "irresistable impulse." The balance of the story unravels the trial as well as Biegler's relationships with his mentor, his secretary, and various others associated with the case.

The word "rape" was still uttered in a whisper in the late 1950s, and the character Laura, her overt sexiness, and her claim of rape was considered shocking and scandalous at the time. Today we hear much worse on the nightly news and are less likely to be perturbed. Shorn of its shock value, ANATOMY OF A MURDER reads a very long, somewhat dry tale that balances a love of the law with a remarkable sense of cynicism toward it. Worth reading? Yes, but less and less so as the years pass by.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Robert Traver's book, Anatomy of a Murder (1958), was on the best seller's list for 65 weeks. Fifty years later this novel is seldom encountered, and yet it is surprisingly well-written and strongly influenced later courtroom dramas. This was Traver's first attempt at a novel. Recalling an English professor's humorous guidance, "An ounce of authenticity is worth of pound of windgassity", he wrote about a murder trial, something with which he was quite familiar. Robert Traver is a pseudonym for a former Michigan Supreme Court Justice.

My copy is a relatively recent reprint from Cinema Classics by Gramercy Books. It includes an amusing, personal introduction by Robert Traver that discusses not only the writing of this exceptional novel, but also his participation in the filming of Anatomy of the Murder.

Having seen the movie several times, I readily visualized James Stewart as Biegler, Ben Gazzara as Lieutenant Manion, Lee Remick as Laura, Arthur O'Connell as Parnell, Eve Arden as Maida, George C. Scott as the prosecutor Claude Dancer, and Joseph M. Welch as the presiding judge.

About 100 pages into this story I was convinced that Otto Preminger's film adhered closely to the book. The rustic atmosphere of the Upper Peninsula, lawyer Paul Biegler's obsession with trout fishing, Biegler's interview with Lieutenant Manion, Biegler's friendship with Parnell, and the good humor of Biegler office assistant, Maida, were as portrayed in the movie.

However, as I continued reading, I became fascinated with several notable differences. Unlike Preminger's film, Laura Manion does not visit Biegler alone in his home office, nor does she go dancing with soldiers at a Thunder Bay bar while her husband is in jail. The humorous courtroom discussion about the proper way to discuss the missing panties is found only in the movie. Otto Preminger was again teasing and testing the censors; the word panties had never been used previously in an American movie. Most significantly, the eleventh-hour revelation that Mary Pilant, the Thunder Bay Bar hostess, was actually the daughter of Barney Quill, and not his mistress as rumored, is found only in the movie. Contrastingly, Traver in his book concludes the courtroom drama with powerful, protracted summaries by the prosecution and defense.

Notes on the movie: Anatomy of a Murder was a best picture nominee while James Stewart was nominated best actor for his role as Paul Biegler. However, the epic Ben Hur dominated 1959, winning eleven Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.

George C. Scott as the competent, forceful prosecutor was in only his second major role. Joseph M. Welch was equally superb as the presiding judge. Interestingly, Welch was actually a well-respected lawyer, not an actor. Joseph Welch is remembered for having masterfully confronted Senator McCarthy in the Army-McCarthy hearings, forcing him to back down on his unfounded accusations.

On vacation in the Upper Peninsula last summer, my wife and I chanced across the town of Big Bay, MI, the town where the murder on which this book is based took place. We had dinner in the inn where the film murder took place (the real murder happened in the bar up the street). The next day, I went to the courthouse in Marquette to see the courtroom where the trial took place both in the real world and in the film as well. There was a criminal trial in progress involving allegations of a male high school teacher fondling some female students. The judge, jury, witnesses and lawyers could all have stepped right out of the pages of this book.

Upon my return home, I watched the movie and read the book. I have been a lawyer for 30 years and have tried dozens of cases. I can tell you that this book "tells it like it is," perfectly describing the experience of a high stakes trial from an attorney's perspective: how a big trial completely consumes and drains you emotionally and physically; the experience of dealing with scared clients and lying witnesses; the interactions with jury, judge and opposing counsel; how testimony is molded to fit the governing law; how expert witnesses can be taken down; the surprise testimony that inevitably occurs in every trial, and so on. Sure, a lot has changed since 1958: legal research is done on a computer rather than in dusty books, jury instructions are handled completely differently than in the book (at least in my state), ad hominum attacks on opposing counsel are out of bounds in a trial; you get sued if you don't pay your secretary, and if the book accurately reflects how things really were then, the English language markedly declined (much of the vocabulary used in the final arguments would be above the heads of many jurors today). But the human element of trial work hasn't changed in the least, and this book captures it perfectly. The book also blows the movie away, by the way--and that's saying a lot, because the movie is excellent, too, even if a tad overwrought in places.

Highly recommended to anyone who wants to know what trial work is all about. Every first year law student should be assigned this book as required reading.

Also recommended for anybody who is thinking of going to the U.P., although for the life of me I don't understand why nobody in the novel ever eats any whitefish--after all, isn't whitefish what the U.P. is all about?

I read this book when I was a teen, and I loved it because it was my first exposure to courtroom drama -- not counting the Perry Mason books, which were, true, courtroom drama, but were somewhat sanitized. I thoroughly enjoyed the Upper Peninsula of Michigan setting: this felt very real to me, as did the small town setting. I liked this book a lot when I first read it and I suspect I would like it today, though I would think the pace was slow.