From Publishers Weekly
The dedication of this novel--to three young women whose lives were ended by "men who collectively served fewer than 10 years in prison for their murders"--encapsulates Telushkin's ( The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl ) strong feelings about the failings of the judicial system and the rights of victims and their families as compared with those of criminals. A law student has been strangled by an ex-lover, Ron Martin, who subsequently turns himself in and receives a minimal sentence. Her distraught father, Gerald Braun, retaliates by murdering Martin. Prominent rabbi Daniel Winter pleads for leniency on behalf of his congregant Braun, who is granted bail. Shortly after, Leonard Goode, the despicable attorney who defended Martin, is also found dead. Although there are several people with motives--Goode's ex-wife, his current wife and her lover--Braun is the prime suspect. Winter refuses to believe Braun is guilty and rallies to support him at the expense of his own career. Well-written and intricately plotted, this is a thought-provoking novel.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Distinguished physician Gerald Braun shoots Ron Martin, his daughter's confessed killer--who got off with six years--in front of two police officers but gets out on his own recognizance after his rabbi, Daniel Winter, argues his case before the court. When Martin's slick lawyer, Leonard Goode, whom Braun had publicly threatened, is found dead four days later, the police pick up Braun, who swears his innocence to Rabbi Winter. And no wonder, since L.A. is crawling with other suspects--the ex-wife Goode wouldn't give a religious divorce to; the second wife who was prevented by a prenuptial agreement from leaving him for her detective-story-writer lover; the gangster whose case he'd lost (and whose wife he was now carrying on with). But Teluskin (The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, etc.) is less interested in scattering clues than in dramatizing the debate among different notions of legal and moral justice advanced by the real-life cases he cites in a headnote and addresses in a tendentious epilogue. Not entirely satisfactory as either detective story or moral exemplum--but Teluskin keeps the pot boiling briskly until the end. --
Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
