The Long-Shot Trial: An Arthur Beauchamp Thriller

by William Deverell

Overview

Arthur Beauchamp takes a break from the courtroom to write a memoir so he can set the record straight about a headline murder case he fought as a young lawyer in 1966. The trial would either mark him as a pathetic loser or thrust him into the top ranks of criminal counsel.

The background: in 1966, a young housemaid was raped by her employer, a callous and vindictive millionaire. She shot him point blank, so it seemed an open-and-shut case of first-degree murder. Enter Arthur Beauchamp, a young lawyer haunted by having bungled his only previous murder case. He is now called upon to defend a case that he is almost certain can’t be won. But as the trial speeds through twists and turns, his slashing cross-examinations bring hope that the jury might entertain a reasonable doubt.

In the present time, Arthur learns that writing about his social gaffes, booze, and sex is not easy, especially as his efforts are regularly interrupted by the quirky characters who inhabit his supposedly idyllic Garibaldi Island.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781778522796
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	05/28/2024
Series:	An Arthur Beauchamp Novel , #9
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	326,636
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

After careers as a journalist, criminal lawyer, and political activist, William Deverell turned to fiction, and his first effort won the Seal First Novel Award. Since then, he has earned multiple prizes for his 20 published novels, including the Dashiell Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing in North America, two Crime Writers of Canada Awards (formerly the Arthur Ellis Award), and two runners-up for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. He lives on Pender Island in British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

03/25/2024

Deverell shines in his clever latest outing for Arthur Beauchamp (after Stung), which finds the Canadian defense attorney looking back on a decades-old murder case. In 1966, Angelina Santos, a maid, confessed to murdering her employer, business magnate Frederick Trudd, with his own rifle. She claimed Trudd had long been abusing her, and that he raped her three days before she killed him. Despite the long odds of winning an acquittal, 29-year-old Beauchamp is assigned to defend Santos, and urged by his boss to make a good-faith effort. Haunted by the loss of his only previous murder trial, Beauchamp is determined to find weaknesses in the prosecution’s case. As the trial unfolds in 1966, Deverell shuffles in chapters set in the present day: biographer Wentworth Chase has published a second edition of his book about Beauchamp’s career, with new material about the Santos case that Beauchamp disputes. To set the record straight, he begins writing a memoir that covers the early days of his career. The ingenious framing device and surprise-packed courtroom action put this on the level of the series’ best entries. It’s a surefire winner. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Deverell paces his story beautifully and weaves in some final surprises.” — The New York Times Book Review

“Deverell shines in his clever latest outing for Arthur Beauchamp … The ingenious framing device and surprise-packed courtroom action put this on the level of the series’ best entries. It’s a surefire winner.” — Publishers Weekly

“William Deverell’s popular Arthur Beauchamp series, which began in 1997, is a legal thriller that explores perceptions of truth. Filled with twists, deceptions, and conspiracy theories, the story concerns the social, cultural, and political values underwriting Canadian society.” — Bookworm, Literary Review of Canada’s newsletter

“For those who have read any of Deverell’s books, you know that the promise you make to yourself to read “just one more chapter,” before lights out is like promising yourself you won’t have any (more) wine on a Saturday night.” — Cece Scott Writing and Photography blog

“In stating the obvious, it’s easy to be carried away by Deverell’s storytelling skills.” — The British Columbia Review

From the Publisher