As a lawyer for over fifty years, you’d expect Henry Milner to have a fairly comprehensive view of the ins and outs of a legal case.
And in Murder at the Bailey- his first foray into fiction- he doesn’t disappoint, gifting us a story full of crooks, plot twists and enough colourful characters to make your jaw drop.
The premise: a defendant is shot dead outside the steps of the old Bailey. The murderer is caught at the scene, having made no attempt to escape. Case closed? Not exactly… which is where barrister Adrian Stanford comes in, for the toughest defence case of his life.
Murder at the Bailey certainly oozes old-world London charm. From its shady underworld characters right through to the world of law, you sense that you’re stepping back in time to an era when cases were conducted in wood-panelled courtrooms, followed by a stiff drink at a traditional boozer with the judge.
Drawing on all that experience representing criminals, his gangsters do feel authentic to the time as well as pleasingly villainous; there’s no doubt here who the bad guys and good guys are. Milner’s protagonist, Adrian Stanford, also comes across as a take on Milner himself: a savvy lawyer who delights in taking on the difficult cases and who gets bored without any work to do.
With a twisting, turning plot, the book feels not so much like a murder mystery as an opening of doors, letting the reader behind the curtain to see how law trials really work- and letting them meet the deranged cast of characters that you suspect are all in a day’s work for your average lawyer.
And with several plates spinning at the same time, it’s impossible to get bored in this lighthearted, easy read.
The Roaring Bookworm 