A Fool for a Client

August 10, 2015
In Edgar-finalist Hall’s frenetic 20th mystery featuring New York City PI Stanley Hastings (after 2014’s Safari), Stanley’s boss, leading negligence attorney Richard Rosenberg, decides to defend himself after being charged with his girlfriend’s murder. It’s up to Stanley to uncover the evidence that will clear Richard. The rapid-fire banter between the pair may owe a lot to the Warner Bros. flicks of the ’30s (when Stanley asks Richard if he’s in trouble, Richard answers, “No, I fell going into my office and I’m suing myself for negligence”). In fact, most characters converse as if auditioning for a remake of His Girl Friday. Stanley’s investigation pauses periodically for deconstruction by his acerbic wife, Alice. Nora Charles, she isn’t. Once Hall moves into the courtroom for the trial, pleasures can be found in Richard’s swashbuckling style and canny, if farfetched, legal maneuvers. But here, too, Hall employs too many arch exchanges. This overreliance on sarcastic dialogue may leave the reader ready to sue for less zip and more substance.

September 1, 2015
Stanley Hastings is the nebbishy New York private investigator who earns most of his money tracking down and signing up clients for personal-injury lawyer Richard Rosenberg. The Stanley-Richard relationship is built on a deep mutual, well, tolerance. This time the case is personal. Richard's girlfriend is found stabbed to death in her apartment, and the ME places Richard at the scene at the time of death. And his fingerprints are on the bloody knife. Stanley, ever the loyal semi-friend, begins investigating. The victim was a law clerk for the judge in a high-profile bank-fraud case that's been going on for months. Stanley hopes the case itself may have some bearing on the murder, but he can't find any connection to Richard, who is defending himself against almost incontrovertible evidence in a courtroom just down the hall. The Hastings novels possess a unique rhythm that's driven by Stanley's internal dialogue and the Greek choruslike lectures he endures from his wife, Alice. Another entertaining entry in a consistently fun, character-focused series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)