Put it all together: a JFK-like liberal President (or for those of you who watch the "West Wing", a Martin Sheen counterpart); the sudden death of the conservative Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; the nomination of a younger woman to replace him; a controversial Federal court case that challenges the right of some women to have a so-called "partial birth abortion". In quite ingenious fashion, the court case will embroil all the characters in a savage ideological battle for political supremacy. Kerry Kilcannon (introduced in the author's earlier "No Safe Place") is the Democratic winner of a close Presidential election. Unfortunately for him, there are a vast array of right-wing forces aligned against him. And they will pull out all the stops to ensure his presidency is derailed long before his first tem is finished. He's quite a man, Kerry - as he is described, "…he needs a larger cause than power". As they say, be careful that you might actually get what you wish for, because the combination of the abortion case and his nomination for the Supreme Court will land him in a giant fight with the Religious Right and their captives in Congress. Caroline Masters is the President's choice for the Chief Justice. It's not just that this is a female nominee, but she will also tip the balance of the bitterly divided Supreme Court in a more liberal direction. So when a constitutional case that determines the future of a contentious abortion law comes along, it is a godsend to the forces that want to derail her nomination. Through a labyrinth set of circumstances, we follow the intertwining destinies of the main characters through a backdrop of politics and the judicial system. Most interesting in the multitude of characters is Sarah Dash, a youngish lawyer who defends 15-year old Mary Ann Tierney. Mary Ann is the mother whose unborn child is hydrocephalic, a disease that offers little chance of survival for the baby following birth. Given that she is nearly six months pregnant and a minor, there is a law that requires her to obtain her parents' permission to abort the fetus. It is this law that will be challenged in the courts. This is a behind the scenes look at American politics and the judicial process. What is shocking to the Australian reader is the ideological depiction of the so-called left wing in politics. Perhaps it is that we Australians have a more lackadaisical attitude, but clearly Americans have little idea as to the nature of real left wing politics. In the novel the "left-wing" is anyone who supports abortion or lives in New York! The examination and cross-examination of the witnesses in the court case is handled with real flair and tension. This a primer on the American political and judicial systems, and worth a read for this alone. It surely makes you wonder what is going on behind the scenes. The character of the Republican who supports the President's nomination, Chad Palmer, is murky and a distraction. He is the survivor of a political hostage-taking in Afghanistan, and we don't need the details of his incarceration. It's a separate book in itself. This reviewer simply does not believe that the President would stick with his nominee for Chief Justice when it is so fraught with political hazards - I could be wrong, but it strikes me as far too contrived. In the real world he would dump her like a sack of potatoes. The Religious Right is painted as the Evil Empire, and lacking in genuine grievances on the abortion issue. They are at times a caricature. Patterson's antipathy to the pro-life movement is too apparent and at times clumsy. The legal issue here revolves around partial birth abortions and the rights of parents to consent (or withhold consent) to an abortion on behalf of minors. Partial birth abortions are a big story in the U.S., inciting tremendous controversy, legal debate and all out war between opponents. Since 1995, when the Republicans took control of the Congress, there have been a number of attempts to pass Bills that would ban partial birth abortions. Pro-choice advocates accuse their opponents of inventing the term, admittedly loaded, to distort the nature and reasons for the procedure. Where this becomes complicated for Australians is that the proposed laws can be challenged on constitutional grounds. For instance, in 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court decided that placing an "undue burden" on abortion rights is unconstitutional. Although the right to first trimester abortions is fairly settled law in the U.S. (Roe V Wade struck down most state laws prohibiting abortion), it might be fairer to call the procedure a "later term" abortion, which focuses on the time of the procedure instead of the method. There are three trimesters in a pregnancy: first trimester is from week 1 through week 13; the second trimester is from week 14 through week 26; and the third trimester is from week 27 through week 39. The American Medical Association defines "late term" abortions as taking place in the third. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, there are between 320 and 600 late-term abortions annually in the United States, in other words they are statistically very small. YoNowadays Richard North Patterson has to be included in an exclusive list of best selling legal thriller writers, along with John Grisham and Scott Turow. Like those luminaries, he too was a practising lawyer, a partner in a San Francisco corporate law firm. He doesn't believe he could have been a writer had it not been for his real life legal experience. He says the skills of a trial lawyer are also the skills of a storyteller. Patterson was born in Berkeley, California, in 1947, and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University and the Case Western Reserve School of Law. He did not start at the top - he was an Ohio assistant attorney general, before going to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those of you who have read his first novel, "The Lasko Tangent", will recognise the latter experience as the source for much of that story. That book won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first suspense novel of 1979. He scratched his writing itch at the University of Alabama in the late 1970s, and wrote three more novels whilst working as a lawyer. But then he stopped writing for about 8 years, after which he wrote "Degree of Guilt" in about three months (we're jealous!). Patterson has used some heavy-hitting friends to get the inside story on the White House for this novel. President Bush (Snr.) is a long time fan who helped with the research; President Clinton also offered some advice. This novel succeeds more as a legal thriller, with tantalising courtroom scenes, than it does as an insider's view of the White House. Patterson expertly weaves the convoluted issues surrounding the abortion debate into a fascinating court case. True, it shamelessly plays on your empathy for liberal causes (or raises your ire if you do not share the author's views), but let's not get too carried away with the need for objectivity. At bottom line the author is at least trying to look at an issue that is controversial, and more importantly achieves it with an entertaining plot that keeps the pages turning. A bit soap-operish? Yes, but if you're looking for a well paced legal/political thriller that will happily wile away the hours, this is well worth the price. By Geoffrey Winn Want us to tell you when we review another book ? Read this: The legal information contained above is intended to be general information about the law. It is not a substitute for legal and other professional advice. Lawscape Communications P/L does not accept responsibility for loss to any person, who either acts or does not act because of this information. |