Tainted Evidence by Robert Daley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"'You have to understand that nearly all of your clients are guilty. The evidence will only convict them. [...] stay as far away from evidence as you can.' [...]
'Once you empanel the jury you want, [...] you have only to play to their prejudices, their preconceived ideas.'"

Tainted Evidence (1993) is the second novel by Richard Daley that I have read. I have found it weaker than Wall of Brass that I reviewed here few months ago. The author, who had used to serve as the Deputy Commissioner of the New York Police Department before he embarked on writing career, is certainly an expert in all matters related to city government. The portrayal of office politics in the police department and in the office of district attorney is plausible, insightful, and relatively well written. I also like the enthralling account of the history of Harlem and how it became the center of violent crime, homicides, and drug use. However, the psychological portraits of main characters are shallow and cliché-ridden: these are not real people.

The beginning four chapters introduce the main characters and locations. We meet detectives Dan Muldoon and Mike Barone and a senior assistant district attorney, Karen Horne. The main thread of the plot begins when Muldoon leads a group of detectives on a mission to capture a dangerous criminal. The raid is horribly botched, there is a shootout, there are victims, and while the criminal has been captured, the case against him is not that clear cut. The case has been tainted by gross incompetence of police.

The second half of the novel is an account of the trial. One of the best lawyers in the country, famous for winning civil rights cases, leads the defense team. The case against a vicious criminal morphs into a case against police corruption and mismanagement. Politics permeates everything; personal career considerations trump law, justice, and fairness.

Alas, the human-interest threads are lame. Clichés abound. We are told that detective Muldoon is a slob. Then we constantly read about him doing slobby things, uttering slobby phrases, and saying 'fucken' all the time. The thread about Barone's erotic conquests is excruciatingly boring. Lame humor, like in the "wok joke," does not help either.

I like the cynical quotes about the legal system that I used for the epigraph. They come from the lawyer's speech given to law students. Otherwise, the novel is a marginal recommendation from me. People who read police or legal thrillers for the plot will probably like it more.

Two-and-a-half stars.


View all my reviews