Customer Reviews

The Indictment

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A beautiful woman murdered, of course. A Yale-educated DA running for office, of course. It seems that Barry Reed is more concerned with looks and education rather than plot and dialogue. In this novel where everyone seemed to have "fresh, Nordic features," Reed focused more on the characters than the story. The only bright spot was attorney Dan Sheridan, who is a down-to-earth, broken-nose kind of player. With each description (which could have been stolen from a soap-opera script) was the educational background of each character. Character description is important, mind you, but not the solitary component of the work. I don't believe that a woman who has been lying face down dead in a marshy area for hours is the most beautiful woman the medical examiner had ever seen. It just doesn't happen. And neither did this book. Barry Reed should read Robert K. Tanenbaum, whose characters are believable and enhance the plot, not replace it

I am a reality buff, and that usually means accepting fiction that is well written with characters that leave me depressed. Barry Reed in "The Indictment" gave me high crime and legal realism and a hero I could both believe and admire. Our protagonist lawyer, Dan Sheridan, is a modern and urban Atticus Finch, except that Reed allows us into Sheridan's world of doubts, fears, and sex life. Sheridan combines hero and humanity.

I learned a great deal of incidental stuff about lie detector tests, drugs, the IRA, autopsies, and the abuse of grand juries. All this was woven into a complex and absorbing plot. I was tempted to stop reading some pages early but fortunately didn't. The apparent climax was followed by a twist into a second conclusion where natrual justice prevailed over the legal system.

One great read by Reed.