Indictment for Murder: A Mystery by Peter Rawlinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Into the valley of death they had gone, he had thought at the time. In the first rays of sunlight they could see, ahead and below, the heads of the corn in the plain swaying in the faint breeze, yellow-gold, spotted with crimson - the poppies, [...] "

Peter Rawlinson, the author of Indictment for Murder (1994), has probably the most impressive non-literary resume of all mystery writers. Among other top jobs, he served as the Solicitor General and Attorney General for England and Wales, his full title was Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, and he was a barrister for exactly 60 years. One can safely assume that when he writes about legal affairs he knows his stuff very well.

Indictment begins strongly when an elderly prisoner is led to a courtroom, the indictment of the crime of murder is read, and the prisoner pleads not guilty. The trial begins. The neat twist is that the accused, Jonathan Playfair, is a judge who used to preside over trials in the same courtroom. Judge Playfair is seventy-seven years old, which - considering the date the novel was published - makes the accused almost the same age as the author. The victim is David Trelawney whom Judge Playfair had known for almost 70 years.

The current-time story that follows the progress of the trial is interspersed with judge Playfair's memories of the past, reaching back to his childhood. He first met David at the age of 8. Later, they were interested in the same woman, Nicola. They fought the Germans in the same military unit in Northern Africa. Playfair muses

"Everything had always been Nicola and David. Even now, it was still David."

I do not believe it is possible to synopsize the plot any more without providing spoilers. Let's just mention that while judge Playfair maintains his innocence we learn that he had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit the murder.

The absorbing plot is plausible: the denouement is gradually unveiled through a cascade of twists. As expected, we learn that the roots of the current events are grounded in painful secrets of the past.

A very readable and highly recommended mystery!

Three-and-a-half stars.


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