The Judgement, by William J. Coughlin

Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey

Completely forgettable, yet satisfying, William J. Coughlin’s The Judgement follows Motor-city Defense attorney Charley Sloan through a spiraling web of political corruption, human fraility, and spiritual turmoil. Sloan has all the makings of an endearing, flawed, protagonist as a thrice-married recovering alcoholic trying to rebuild his life after his fall from the grace of Detroit’s finest up-and-comers. This tale takes him from a political scandal that threatens (with no small bit of subtlety) to take down the Mayor of Detroit, to a horrifying string of serial murders afflicted on the innocent children of Hub City, Michigan. As these tales unfold, you will look forward to the suspense and facination that the horrors inflicted by humans usually invoke. But the introduction of too many underdeveloped characters (good guys) and the all too obvious clues (bad guys) takes away from a good story and concept.

In this second posthumous thriller (Heart Of Justice, 1995), former Detroit defense lawyer and judge William J. Coughlin serves up an intriguing and meandering plot that you will often want to put down. The vivid imagery and realistic character relationships, however, will keep you reading until somehow you are building to a fizziling climax that you saw coming from clue #1.

Book Description
In a rural area outside of Detroit bodies are being found in the snow. One after another. Neatly washed, wrapped in plastic, methodically laid out like sleeping angels. And very, very young.

Forty miles away and at the other end of the world an honest cop, the deputy chief of police, has been framed for a corruption charge: In a world of big-city politics, he wants ace lawyer Charley Sloan to get him off.

Pulled into the two very different cases, Charley faces the heat of a perplexing serial murder investigation and the heavy hitters of the Motor City’s inner circle. Interviewing witnesses, putting together clues, Charley Sloan, a man who has been at the bottom and at the top, is about to uncover the explosive difference between true innocence–and the most dangerous guilt of all…

Mass Market Paperback – 432 pages (January 1997) St Martins Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0312962444 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.19 x 6.82 x 4.21