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Davis, Rankin

Hung Jury

London, Coronet Books (Hodder & Stoughton). 369 pp. £5.99.

Dr. Jennifer Fox stands trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of Dr. Charles Easterman. There had been a bitter public disagreement between them over her findings regarding leukemia clusters particularly in the young and the effect of pesticides. Dr. Easterman had maintained that her research was politically motivated and begun to destroy her reputation. She is as good as convicted on what appears overwhelming evidence. One member of the jury, Alex Parrish, is not so sure about her guilt. He tries to persuade the others to keep an open mind. As the discussion proceeds, he realises that one member of the jury has been planted to ensure a conviction and others have been blackmailed.

Meanwhile, outside the jury room, the Attorney General has been kidnapped. He happens to be the Prime Minister's brother and the Prime Minister does love his brother. The kidnappers threaten to kill their prisoner if the jury find Dr. Jennifer Fox guilty. Official policy is never to give in to blackmail.

The book, besides being an excellent mystery, shows the jury system with all its faults and strengths, the time pressure on a jury (someone always has to get back to running their business and wants a quick decision), and the racial tensions of British society contained within a jury room. The jury room must be kept isolated, heightening tension, and must not know what goes on outside.

The ecological debate and whether or how governments and big companies can be kept in line is brought up. What are the limits to the actions private individuals can undertake in the face of the government's indifference and even siding with the those who pollute our environment to the point where our lives and the lives of our children are threatened. (The book is dedicated to the 'Liquidators', 600,000 "volunteers" now dead or dying, who cleaned up the avoidable mess the world knows as Chernobyl.)

As in any good mystery, nobody is what they seem. The end is eminently satisfying and credible. Britain today, any society today, warts and all.

The author is a criminal barrister in Newcastle. There is an offer from the publishers to return your money if you don't find the book as good as John Grisham.

Davis, Rankin

The Oath

London, Hodder & Stoughton. 376 pp. £16.99.

The dark side of the new cults that are rising in response to the new millennium are explored in a mystery story that begins on 6 January 2000. Capable of great harm, they feel absolved from our laws and our values, responsible only to God. Their sacrament is violence (and getting hold of everyone else's money).

Rose Moody is a fifteen-year old child. One day she runs away from home after a quarrel with her family and thirteen months later she ends up a wreck. Nobody, apart from her father seems to care. He finds her, rescues her and brings a private prosecution against the cult head who has raped her and held her utilizing the usual cult weapons of isolation, control and domination. Poor (in both senses of the word) Moody and his solitary defense counsel face three highly paid Queen's Counsel (of whom 2 1/2 are unscrupulous). The case looks lost and it is, but there is an ace in the hole.

The ace in the hole is Joss Lane, motherless son, ex-junkie, with his own agenda: his father has signed over all his wealth, including Joss's inheritance, to the same Millennium Church, which is preparing for Armageddon.

The law is not an ass but a bastard in this enthralling legal mystery thriller.

Rankin Davis is the pseudonym for two barristers, Keith Rankin and Tony Davis. They first met on opposing sides in a courtroom.