Thursday, October 04, 2007

Pg. 99: Jeffrey Miller's "Murder on the Rebound"

The latest feature at the Page 99 Test: Jeffrey Miller's Murder on the Rebound.

About the novel, from the author's website:
"Hemlock for Herskowitz!" That's what the students write in the law-school toilets about their drill-sergeant professor, Mack Herskowitz. Then, Tony Albinoni, a mouthy "first year," is poisoned at dinner in the professor's penthouse. Was the noxious drink meant for the unpopular prof - a man widely known behind his back as "Jerk-O-Twit"?

So begins the newest mystery for Amicus and his companion human, Justice Ted Mariner, both of them "outlawed" to the suburban law school after last spring's "incidents" downtown - Justice Mariner's very public wrestling match, in the toney Pasta La Vista restaurant, with a fellow judge, not to mention the day he was seen bussing his comely young clerk in a not-so-toney Yorkville bar.

It's classic, uproarious Amicus, with his caustic shin's-eye view of "Homo allegedly sapiens" and their justice system. As usual, the Falstaffian feline narrates a seriously funny (and profoundly serious) tale in which the search for whodunnit intersects with the deeper mystery of the nature of "truth" itself.
Among the praise for Murder on the Rebound:
"An often hilarious drama worthy of Rumpole. An uncommon mystery full of literate and sardonically humorous questions."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Here we have a terrific plot, a law student poisoned during a dinner party given by a much-despised law professor. A slick whodunit has plenty to recommend it..."
--Globe & Mail
Jeffrey Miller’s work has been described as "Mark Twain meets Rumpole of the Bailey." In his many years as a columnist for The Lawyers Weekly, he has chronicled the tragicomic intersection of law and the human condition. His non-fiction books include Where There’s Life, There’s Lawsuits and Ardor in the Court!. Murder on the Rebound is the latest novel in the successful Amicus Curiae mystery series. Learn more about Miller and his other books at his website.

The Page 99 Test: Murder on the Rebound.

--Marshal Zeringue