Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

by C.W. Grafton

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B001DBEW7M
• Release Date: January 1950
• Publisher: Rinehart & Co.
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A nice lost treasure of a book

Maureen Corrigan (my favorite book reviewer who is often on Fresh Air) always reviews contemporary novels. She's never looking back over her shoulder and suggesting that you try this or that book unless it has some connection to her current topic. So I got it into my thick head that I would write and ask her what some of her 'all-time favorites' would be. Well, nice to hear back from her, Maureen Corrigan suggested a couple of top 100 lists to look at (Robin Winks) and one book. Yes, I know she was humoring me here, and probably trying to get a fast response out to some stranger over the course of a busy day. But for me to ask for an 'all time favorite' list and get back 1 suggestion, well, lets just say I had to read this book if nothing else. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, by CW Grafton (Sue Grafton's father) is set in 1940, and I think written in 1950. The back flap of the copy I got said that it is the story of Jess London, a young rookie lawyer who works for his sister's husband Sothern. (I wont give anything away). Before you know it Jess has confessed to killing Sothern in order to keep the police from looking at his sister for the murder. The rest of the story deals with Jess trying to save himself from the murder rap he has dug himself into. I read another online review where it says the story "the story stumbles and takes on the dull tedium of a bad hangover and meanders along for 150 or so pages as the police gradually decide they may have been too hasty discounting London's confession". I would say that these 150 pages or so are far from 'dull tedium'. They might have been 150 pages of the most cleverly conceived tongue in cheek writing I have come across in quite a while. The writing is obviously not what you would find while perusing James Patterson, it is of its own era and sometimes slow and difficult to concentrate upon. For as light a book as it is, its rather on the harder side to read, if only because it is so easy to pass a paragraph here and there. However, if you do get into that frame of mind, you will be missing some great writing. I kept thinking of William Powell and Myrna Loy in the Thin Man series. The banter they had in the first one was amazing, and here you have page after page of it. The story is written in a study of details. One fine observation after another. In the end. The court room scene (this is a courtroom mystery/thriller, your going to have a courtroom scene, Im not giving anything away) was very very very outdated. You can tell that 60 years of Perry Mason to John Grisham have added a great deal to our expectations of just exactly how a courtroom works in contemporary fiction. I cant really hold it over Grafton because I guess he was at the forefront of this genre. The plot here though is really pretty bad. Over all I would give the first 80% of this story 5 stars. the court part 2 stars, but because it was so great to start with and had a satisfactory end, I have to bump it back up to 5 stars.