Product Description

Attorney Ben Kincaid's vacation in the Pacific Northwest is interrupted by murder when ex-client and current professional environmentalist seeks his aid in defending him against murder charges in the midst of a war between conservationists and loggers. Reprint. AB. LJ.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #463567 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-07
• Released on: 1999-12-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The eighth in a series of popular courtroom cliffhangers, Bernhardt's newest Ben Kincaid novel (after Extreme Justice) finds the savvy defense attorney in a tiny logging town in the Pacific Northwest. The sinister forces at work behind Magic Valley's Bunyan-esque simplicity emerge when a tree-cutter explodes in anger and kills a local lumberjack?and Ben's old client, George Zakin, is suspected of the foul play. Called on to defend this man again (six years earlier Zakin had been accused and acquitted of an ecoterrorism homicide), Ben reluctantly takes the case. Ben's investigation of the other suspects?a scar-faced drug lord, the mysterious Bigfoot creature often sighted in the thick, dark woods, the leader of a covert logging consortium called "The Cabal" and many a vicious redneck snarling repetitiously about "tree-huggers"?brings Ben into dangerous contact with the Magic Valley's underbelly. The sexiness of Ben's opponent, "stunning young prosecutor" "Granny" Adams, raises the courtroom stakes. But somehow?perhaps because the cranky old hanging judge would rather be fishing?these scenes fail to deliver the drama they promise. Bernhardt juices the suspense with chapter-ending teasers ("The secret would have to die. With her."), but the gratuitous violence and oversimplification of the logging controversy keep the potboiler on medium-high at best.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Thrillingly interwoven plots are Bernhardt's forte, a talent he once again demonstrates full-blown in his latest superb legal thriller featuring attorney Ben Kincaid. Six years ago, Ben defended an animal-rights activist charged with murder. Zoom to the present. Ben, in Washington State on a book-signing tour, is arrested for breaking and entering as he attempts to liberate a cat whose owner has sentenced it to unnecessary euthanasia. Ben inadvertently gets involved in a group called Green Rage, a conservationist organization wrestling with the local logging industry in a life-or-death struggle. One of the members of the group has been charged with a horrible murder--and who is the alleged perp? None other than the man Ben defended six years ago. To defend him again, Ben has to go up against prosecutor Granville "Granny" Adams, who, despite her moniker, is attractive and tough as nails. She is bound and determined to win this case. In the meantime, subplots swirl and crash around Ben's feet, but these only serve to enrich the entertainment value of this wonderfully riveting read. Brad Hooper

From Kirkus Reviews
Windmill-tilting Tulsa lawyer Ben Kincaid (Naked Justice, 1997, etc.), promoting his first book among the vanishing virgin forests of the Northwest, takes on a defense case as hopeless as anything back home. The prosecutionrepresented by smart, se xy, ambitious, unscrupulous Magic Valley D.A. Rebecca Granville (``Granny'') Adamscontends that tree-hugging George Zakin hid out in the woods till he could draw a bead on logger Dwayne Gardiner, shot him through the chest, then watched as Gardiner was bu rned to death by a booby trap Zak had wired to the ignition of Gardiner's tree cutter. Green Rage, the environmental group Zak heads, has such a long history of quasi-terrorist activity against Gardiner's employer, WLE (We Log Everywhere) that everybody i n town, most of them dependent on logging for their livelihood, is united against Green Rage, from the judge who refuses Ben's pleas for a change of venue to the witnesses Granny keeps producing out of her bottomless hat. It doesn't help matters that Ben' s introduction to Magic Valley has been his own arrest for attempted catnapping (don't ask), or that six years ago he successfully defended Zak back in Tulsa on another charge of enrivo-murder, freeing him, as everybody claims, to commit this one. But the most damning facts are the ones that come out in courtfacts that reveal Ben's own witnesses as liars and brand his client as a wimp who takes the Fifth even when his own lawyer calls him to the stand. The stage is set for giant-killer Ben to rout his obs cenely well-financed opponents; but Bernhardt stacks the deck so guilelessly and telegraphs each punch so clearly that the environmentalists and their noble struggle inspire no more conviction than election-day slogans. Newcomers to the series, now in its eighth installment, will be impressed at how completely Ben can turn a lost case around. Series veterans will know better than to look for anything new. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

This is a good read though the ending is disappointing.
For the first 400 pages, I thought this is one of the best "legal-thrillers" that I have read. The author digs the protagonist in deeper and deeper. Yes, the judge is one-sided, but there are such judges. But the ending is somewhat disappointing--it takes too easy a way out. Still it is well worth reading.

"Dark Justice" Shines Through

"Dark Justice", the 8th installment in the Ben Kincaid series, proves to be possibly the best offering from William Bernhardt.

I've always felt that Will Bernhardt is probably one of the most underrated authors in the legal genre.

Nonetheless, his latest book is a thoroughly entertaining read. I've followed his work since the first "Primary Justice" several years back, and I've watched progressively how each book is better than the previous one.

"Dark Justice" is a very timeless book; it presents a very controversial topic that is heavily debated today. I was also surprised to know that all of the events in the book (most of which have been spoiled to you by the reviews above) have all occurred in the last 15 years.

Bernhardt's exhaustive research and true mastery of the genre proves an asset.

Good start, slow finish
Though this book had a good start, the trial to the end of the book was slooooow. I ended up skimming through most of the latter parts of the book and still managed to get the story line. The scene of the fire at the cabin was oh too unbelievable. The author and story lost credibility with me there. Also, the confession by the murderer was too speech like as a previous reviewer noted. Not natural. The relationship between Christina and the Sheriff was fine, but why did the author feel he had to belabor Kincaid's opinion on that relationship? For goodness sake, enough is enough. I didn't feel the book was too pro-environmentalist and preachy though. I felt the writer did a good job in that respect of illustrating both sides of the economical vs. conservation conflict. I did enjoy the story for the most part, mostly because it wasn't the same trite plot that is in most murder mysteries. The loggers vs. conservationists battle does continue to rage on and I was eager to hear more about this. The author did a good job in this respect of including facts into the story so you could learn as you read along, more about what goes on with respect to logging. Aw yes, a few details re: facts were off, but as a previous reviewer stated that didn't affect the story, and last I checked, editors are still human.