Customer Reviews

Capitol Threat: A Novel (Ben Kincaid)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just when you think Mr. Bernhardt's books can't get any better, he surprises you by one-upping himself. This one has more twists and turns than a Twister game and more ups and downs than a roller coaster.

In Capitol Threat, we're taken through the sordid and dangerous process of getting a Supreme Court Justice nominee to actually make it to the Supreme Court. Just when Ben thinks he's out of his league and can't possibly help Judge Roush, the ball bounces into his court.

This book will keep you on the edge of your seat. I couldn't put it down - finished it in two days. Thanks for another wonderful story Mr. Bernhardt!

Lois Karklus
[...]

I'm not a lawyer and don't profess to be any kind of an expert on the law. But in the past few years, I've become hooked on the "legal thriller" genre. I've now read all of William Bernhardt's books, most of which feature attorney Ben Kincaid. I've also read books by several other lawyer/authors, and while literary criticism has never been my strong suit, I've begun to understand that each such author has his or her own unique style of approaching a story.

William Bernhardt's books are among the most lighthearted that I've discovered in this genre. I don't take him as seriously as I take some of the others, such as Scott Turow. Bernhardt's books have an element of fantasy to them. Because I've learned that Bernhardt and his protagonist Ben Kincaid have a lot of things in common in their lives, I see Ben Kincaid's exploits as those that lawyers like William Bernhardt fantasize happening to them to liven up their lives.

I am politically liberal, so I have not been upset by the underlying agenda items Bernhardt's recent books have embraced. In fact, I've found that most of the lawyer/authors I've read lean to the left more than to the right. I'd welcome the chance to read a well-written legal thriller by someone whose politics are different from mine.

Since I once lived in the Washington, DC, area and still visit there a few times each year, I spotted a few inaccuracies and stretches of the imagination. There are no turnpikes leading from Montgomery County, MD, to Washington, and there is no shopping mall with a parking garage, escalators connecting each floor, and a department store anchor in the vicinity of Georgetown. But I know that authors are entitled to literary license; John Grisham even admits to inventing Washington landmarks in his author's note in "The Street Lawyer".

For those who have been following the Kincaid stories, the usual cast of characters returns in this book. Jones, his administrative assistant, and Christina, his partner and now fiancee, play small but important roles in this story. But it's his investigator, Loving, who deserves top billing with Kincaid this time.

In terms of the suspense generated by this story, I pretty much had it figured out who did it. There are a couple of surprises at the end, but I did turn out to be correct. Still, I had a lot of fun getting there as the story progressed.

I look forward to more stories featuring Ben Kincaid, whether he continues as a U.S. Senator or decides to return to Oklahoma after his appointed term ends.

Just awful,,,totally unrealistic plot (I do realize it's a novel!), plodding story, and absolutely zero research into the DC area ie, discussion of areas of the city are inaccurate at best.
Amazon wont let me put up zero stars that's why there is one. Save your money.

I am a big fan of William Bernhardt, but this book was not his best by far, for the first time i have been disappointed in the Ben Kencaid series. It was too slow moving, not enough about Ben and his partner and their employees and the personal stuff. The whole book was kind of a waste of time for me and not up to his usual entertaing writeing. I have read all of his books and keep them in my small library and this was the first time I have felt let down by him.

Readers familiar with William Bernhardt's courtroom series featuring attorney Ben Kincaid; his offbeat partner cum fiancée, Christina McCall; his intrepid investigator, Loving; and his computer maven administrative assistant, Jones, will be riveted by their latest escapades in the complex plot of CAPITOL THREAT.

As a result of solving a tricky case some months prior, the governor of Oklahoma has appointed Ben to fulfill the rest of Senator Glancy's term. Ben is his usual socially inhibited self, fighting his sense of inadequacy, and the rest of his retinue also are not completely comfortable in their new venue, Washington, D.C. Nevertheless, they persevere and in the end prevail. The first important event they attend is held in the Rose Garden, where the President is to announce his nominee to the Supreme Court, Thaddeus (Tad) T. Roush, a well-respected and mostly liked jurist on the Court of Appeals.

The book begins 10 years in the past. The narrator is a thief and a murderer. Irony and fate will find her the "main attraction" at the celebration party held at the home of Roush. Who is she? How did she get there? Why did she suddenly reappear at this time? These questions form a thread that run through the fabric of the novel; albeit the main frame of the story is the uproar started by and about Roush himself.

The next section is titled "Three Weeks Before" and introduces another influential character: Judge Rupert Haskins, a well-respected Republican who expected to be the President's nominee to the Supreme Court. We meet him and his overly devoted wife at a dinner reception where a fire breaks out. The doors are jammed, and all routes of escape are closed off. But Haskins charges to the rescue; he shouts orders and his forcefulness breaks through the panic so that everyone starts moving and gets out --- or almost everyone. An infant can be heard crying in the midst of flames, smoke and heat. Of course the judge saves the tyke and becomes a national hero --- a feather in his cap that is sure to be the ticket that will put a lock on his chances of flying through the juggernauts on his way into a seat on the Supreme Court.

Fast forward to the event at the Rose Garden and the President's Supreme Court nomination announcement. Surprise! Surprise! Thaddeus T. Roush is his pick. The President's speech, Haskins's outrage, the appearance of the "narrator" and what follows is what propels CAPITOL THREAT into the realms of suspense, political drama and timeliness.

The Supreme Court remains a very honored yet elusive body, but William Bernhardt tweaks the curtain that shields the nomination process to discuss how and why a particular person is chosen. He takes us through the goings-on of committee, then hearings in Congress and the awesome task of voting (or not voting) for the nominee on the hot seat getting the third degree. And in Roush's case things are even hotter.

In the meantime Haskins is spinning a web of vitriol and revenge against the world. He wants that seat so badly he can taste it and will do anything to get it. Anything! He has a group of senators who are backing him; they plan to trash Judge Roush and do as much damage to anyone who gets in their way. This ramps up the suspense as the machinations of sore losers usually do.

The architecture of this novel is constructed with every detail fitting together like a lock and key. Bernhardt's keen eye for characterizations makes his players more than cardboard cutouts and more available to readers. The writer's sharp ear for dialogue produces conversations that are acoustically pitch perfect and believable. And he is gifted with a great sense of humor that makes its way into the story with exquisite timing.

The Kincaid novels all have a social issue at their heart. Bernhardt never preaches or proselytizes, but through Ben and his colleagues he certainly gets his point across. Each of his 15 novels is so different and fresh that one can read them in any order, which is a boon for readers new to these works. You can bet that you won't be disappointed.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Ben Kincaid isn't in Oklahoma anymore. The self-deprecating criminal defense attorney is now a newly-minted junior senator, appointed by the governor to fill out the term of his predecessor. Among the decisions that Ben has to make: Will he run in the upcoming senatorial election? Will he finally set a date to marry his long-suffering and endlessly patient girlfriend, Christina McCall, who is also his chief of staff? These matters are soon relegated to the back burner when a series of explosive events suddenly place Ben in the national spotlight.

The conservative Republican president of the United States nominates Thaddeus T. Roush for an opening in the U. S. Supreme Court. The Commander-in-Chief and most everyone else is shocked when, in his acceptance speech, the nominee blurts out, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am a gay American. And I will not live in the closet any longer." The Republicans are unhappy, and they want Roush's nomination to fail in the Judiciary Committee. However, Roush has vowed to fight back, and Ben's mentor, Senate Minority Leader Robert Hammond from Texas, asks him to represent Roush during the committee hearings. Roush has confidence in Ben, who, he declares, does "what it takes to see that justice is served." When Ben reluctantly agrees to assist the nominee, he jeopardizes his career and places himself squarely in the line of fire.

Kincaid is extremely uncomfortable around the smoke-filled rooms of our nation's capitol, where secret deals, corruption, lies, and unbridled ambition trump the American ideals of truth and justice. However, Ben soon learns to play hardball with the best of them, and he does his utmost to boost Roush's chances with all of the oratorical tricks at his disposal. Unfortunately, further revelations about the candidate's past as well as the murder of a young woman in Roush's garden present seemingly insurmountable obstacles to his confirmation. How can any candidate survive so much bad publicity?

"Capitol Threat" is a strange amalgam of lighthearted banter, farce, torture, cold-blooded murder, and insider information about Washington politics. Unfortunately, Bernhardt gives in to the temptation to preach; too much of the almost four-hundred page novel is taken up with speechifying. The narrative is suspenseful enough, and Ben, Loving, and Christina are always good company. However, too many far-fetched twists and turns and a few unrealistic coincidences weaken the book. All in all, Bernhardt had a promising idea and he showed courage in addressing such controversial issues as abortion, homosexuality, and the death penalty. However, the author would have been more successful had he crafted a more coherent, plausible, and subtle story.

The ham-fisted political statements far overshadow the thin plot and character developments. This novel has no particular focus or dramatic intrigue (as opposed to earlier books in the series) and serves primarily as a platform to highlight the author's animus toward any views other than his own. Everyone's entitled to his or her own opinion, but write an editorial for a magazine--don't couch such polemics as a "novel".

This book is a bad combination of irritating stereotyping, an incredibly unrealistic premise and really slow-moving and boring plotting. The murder that is purportedly at the center of the book is quickly solved at the very end, almost as an afterthought, and receives so little attention that it is easy to forget that a murder even happened.

Most of the book is spent on the main character self-righteously speechifyin' at the confirmation hearing of a Supreme Court Justice. Righteous indignation is boring to listen to and unbearable to read (even when you agree with it), and Mr. Kincaid's speeches were not nearly as galvanizing as the author seemed to think they were. Now, I suppose that it might be possible to make the tension & suspense surrounding a Supreme Court confirmation hearing interesting, but this book certainly didn't succeed at it. In addition, the 180 degree turn made by one of the Senators was unconvincing and, truly, ridiculous.

This was my first book by William Bernhardt. Perhaps some of his others are better, but I'm not sure that I will ever bother to find out.

As a reader of the entire Ben Kincaid series as well as most other William Bernhardt novels I found this book a big letdown. Bernhardt introduces way too much editorialization making large parts of the story seem more like an opinion piece than a novel. The book captures the wheeling and dealing of the political landscape but a few turns in the story are hard to fathom especially near the end of the book. I hope this series gets out of the political realm because it seems the author is unable to write about politics without forcing his personal beliefs down the readers throats. I also hope Lovings character does not go in the direction suggested as the story raps up. If you skip this one the only real thing you miss is at the very end where Ben finally pops the question.

I've read all of the Ben Kincaid series and enjoy the twists and turns, no matter how unlikely. There are a couple of factual issues to be addressed in future printings (i. e. the State of the Union address is delivered in the House chamber, not in the Senate). I still wonder about how Bill does his research for those grizzly torture scenes. Keep up the good work. It might be time to give Ben, Kristina, Loving, and the rest of the gang a rest.