Night Is the Hunter

December 15, 2014
Gore’s third novel featuring former San Francisco police officer Harlan Donnally (after 2013’s A Criminal Defense) combines a serviceable mystery with an in-depth analysis of implied malice as the concept is used within the criminal justice system. A jury convicted Israel Dominguez of first-degree murder for shooting Edgar Rojo in an apparent gang war 20 years ago. Now Ray McMullin, the judge who put Dominguez on death row, wants Donnally to re-examine the case. Besides reading trial transcripts and arrest reports, Donnally interviews everyone he can find connected with the event, including the judge, witnesses, arresting officers, prosecutor, and DA. Donnally gets wildly different versions of what transpired (and the reasons for it), as well as pushback, since everyone has something to hide. The law may be clear, but human motivations can have bizarre results. Gore not only puts a face on the difficulties of serving justice but also illustrates their immensity.

January 1, 2015
Years ago, California judge Ray McMullin sentenced a killer to death. Now, appeals are exhausted and the man is about to die. Even earlier, a film director, working for the government, gave impassioned briefings about the need for America's participation in Vietnam. Both men were dishonest. The judge helped the prosecution conceal evidence that would have brought a prison sentence, not death. And the director's lies caused his own son to enlist. He was killed in combat. The story lines connect only in the person of PI Harlan Donnally. The judge asks him to seek information to stop the execution. And the director? He's Donnally's father, attempting to wash away his guilt by directing a movie that exposes the treachery of the Reagan administration. Author Gore has two novels here, and we're happy to follow Donnally as his inquiry leads him into well-done action scenes. The moviemaking stuff is fun, too. But the legal theorizing around McMullin is essayish and overlong, designed not for thriller fans but for law students, who may be the book's real audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)