Crime of Privilege

Starred review from April 22, 2013
Walker’s sixth legal thriller—his first since 1993’s The Appearance of Impropriety—is a sheer pleasure to read. In March 1996, during a party at the Palm Beach, Fla., mansion of the politically connected Gregory family, George Becket discovers cousins Peter Gregory Martin and Jamie Gregory sexually violating a drunken young woman in the library. George hesitates at first, then intervenes to prevent further abuse. In March 2008, now an ADA on Cape Cod, George is still feeling guilty that he didn’t step in sooner. Bill Telford, a guy he meets at a local restaurant, offers him a chance to assuage his guilt. Bill wants to know why members of the Gregory family have never been implicated in the unsolved murder of his college-age daughter, Heidi, nine years earlier. Although Bill’s tenaciousness has made him a joke among lawyers and police, George is determined to crack the case. Are the Gregorys guilty, or has someone who resents their wealth and power made them targets? George must find his own moral compass, in a summer read notable for credible characters and unpredictable twists. Agent: David Gernert, the Gernert Agency.

March 1, 2013
Years after watching his preppy friends sexually violate a young woman at a Palm Beach party, lowly assistant DA George Becket puts himself at risk by investigating their involvement in the unsolved murder of a girl in Cape Cod. The old friends, including several cousins, are related to a powerful Massachusetts senator--the "incredibly nice guy" who got Becket his job. The murder victim's grieving father, written off as a nut case for pestering authorities with theories about the cold case, convinces Becket the person who clubbed his daughter to death with a golf club wasn't found for political reasons. Becket quickly discovers links between that crime and the one in Palm Beach. Haunted by his failure to do anything to prevent the rape, he becomes obsessed with solving the murder. He flies around the country, and to Costa Rica and France, questioning people. He is so dogged in his pursuit of the truth, he earns the respect of the guy hired to beat him up. This book sometimes bogs down in whodunit-style exposition. The suspects include a one-time best buddy of George's who escaped to Idaho to run a rafting company, the bratty cousin who is now a shifty foreclosure banker with a movie-star girlfriend, and a family friend now living in Europe under an assumed name. Everyone has secrets, including Becket's elusive ex-wife, who cheated on him with a colleague of his, and his attractive co-worker, a society type who may or may not be on his side. Even when the action slows, Walker maintains his dry, sometimes biting humor and moral edge. In his first novel since The Appearance of Impropriety (1993), San Francisco trial lawyer Walker delivers a convincing portrait of misbehavior among the rich and powerful.

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Starred review from March 15, 2013

In 1996, during spring break in Florida, befuddled student George Becket looks on while a drunken Kendrick Powell is raped by two boys, relatives of a powerful New England senator. When evidence is suppressed and the boys go unpunished, Kendrick commits suicide. Now it's 12 years after the rape, and Becket, a deputy district attorney in the Cape and Islands District Attorney's office, finds himself under pressure. Senator Gregory's henchmen want him to do nothing to harm the family; Kendrick's wealthy father wants justice and to put a stop to the Gregorys' criminal behavior; and Bill Telford wants to know why no one ever followed up on evidence he gathered regarding his daughter Heidi, found on a golf course with her head bashed in the night after attending a party with the Gregory boys. Tossed about by these forces and hoping to atone for his past, Becket follows clues that lead from Cape Cod to Hawaii, from San Francisco to Costa Rica, and from Idaho to France. VERDICT While seemingly taking as its inspiration the by-now tiring shenanigans of a family like the Kennedys, Walker's sixth novel (after The Appearance of Impropriety) is an outstanding crime story with spot-on characterization, a protagonist whose humiliating past compels sympathy, and a host of unexpected suspects. The novel's moral complexity will appeal to readers who enjoyed works as diverse as Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, Nelson DeMille's The Gold Coast, and any number of contemporary thrillers. [Author tour; library marketing.]--Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2013
Attorney George Becket owes his career to the Gregory family and its political connections. The Gregory family owes George appreciation for not testifying about a rape that occurred at the family's Palm Beach compound. The victim eventually killed herself, and her powerful father never forgave George for not supporting her claims. Years later on Cape Cod, George is asked by another grieving father to investigate a young woman's murder. The man believes his daughter was in the company of Senator Gregory's son and nephew the night she was killed. As George travels from Costa Rica to France to track down the people who were there that night, it becomes clear that he has been cast as both cat and mouse in an ever-expanding chase. Walker is an attorney, but this is not a legal thriller. Rather, it's a page-turning, puzzle-solving adventure. Fans of Douglas Kennedy's fast-paced suspense will find much to enjoy here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)