Just Revenge

August 30, 1999
Who determines justice? In this thought-provoking and ambitious novel, lawyer and Harvard professor Dershowitz creates a decide-for-yourself scenario that is both chilling and life affirming. Elderly scholar Max Menuchen is a Holocaust survivor who endures haunting memories of the 1942 massacre of his infant son, pregnant wife and extended family in Vilna, Lithuania. His grandfather's last cry for revenge echoes constantly in his mind, even after he emigrates to America and builds a successful career. Finally, after a lifetime of survivor guilt, a chance encounter in Cambridge, Mass., leads him to the Nazi killer of his family, Marcelus Prandus, who lives nearby, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, his past never revealed to his American-born family. To prosecute him for war crimes appears to be futile--Prandus is terminally ill and would die before any trial came to pass. Overcome with frustration and a burning need to avenge his family's deaths, Max--an otherwise gentle, kindly academic--conceives a plan to punish Prandus that is both shocking and brilliant. Ultimately, a psychologically devastated Prandus takes his own life. Is Max responsible for his death? Were his actions morally acceptable? And of immediate relevance, were they legal? Defense lawyer Abe Ringel--returning from Dershowitz's previous novel The Advocate's Devil--takes on his old friend Max's case and seeks to prove that retribution and justice are not irreconcilable. Full of clever twists, Dershowitz's latest endeavor is intricately plotted, though the dialogue is on the stiff side and frequently more utilitarian than conversational. Subtlety is not Dershowitz's strong suit, nor is literary finesse, but he makes up for these shortcomings with the dramatic and tragic events that frame the plot, and the intensity of his moral argument. He dedicates the novel to the members of his family who were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Agent, Helen Rees. 5-city author tour.

August 1, 1999
In a novel dedicated to family members killed during the Holocaust, Dershowitz reanimates Abraham Ringel, first introduced in "Advocate's Devil" (1995), for a second foray into a fictional courtroom. As expected, renowned defense attorney Dershowitz is comfortable with legal mechanics. The courtroom drama--from the jury selection to the verdict--is realistic enough, and the question at the story's heart--Is there such a thing as a just revenge?--is certainly intriguing. But Dershowitz's dialogue is stiff and sometimes trite ("there's something inside of you that you has to get out"), "and the first part of the novel is surprisingly undramatic, even though it sets up the tragic, twisted history that gives rise to the case: Holocaust survivor Max Menuchen, an unpretentious, 74-year-old biblical scholar, discovers the whereabouts of the man who raped his sister and slaughtered the rest of his family during the war. With the aid of a friend, he implements a clever plan: kidnap the man, convince him that his own beloved family has been murdered, and abet his suicide. The moral dilemma may keep some readers involved, and Dershowitz's celebrity may draw some requests, but fans of such masters of the courtroom drama as John Grisham or Richard North Patterson won't have much patience with this subpar effort. ((Reviewed August 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)