"FLAT LAKE IN WINTER" by Joseph T. Klempner (A-)

The author has been a criminal defense attorney, an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and a legal aid attorney. In short, he knows his stuff. He also lives in upstate New York, the locale of this novel, so this story brims over with descriptive passages of the the Adirondack landscape and all of the isolated small towns up there and the oddball people who live in them.

This book is also filled with legal maneuvering, police reports, and court briefs. It is almost a how-to book about the legal process and our legal system. For those who delight in this kind of information, this will be a gold mine of information for them as a wealth of background information is provided. This is a behind the scenes look at what happens when a capital case occurs and the State is obliged to give every opportunity to the defense team to protect both the process and the system from a mess of later appeals. It also serves to give whatever reasonable opportunity that it can to protect the legal rights of the accused, especially someone who is so obviously guilty that he has already been convicted in the court of public opinion.

This is one of my wife's favorite crime mystery novels as she loves the legal process and the how-to aspects of this book. Maybe she would have made a great attorney, but I found some of the reading to be rather on the dry side. For example, the first several chapters are a little more than a glorified police report, and it is some time before we get into the personal dynamics of this story. Furthermore, Jonathan's severe mental problems don't allow for any relationship between him and his attorney or anyone else. 

It is some time before the personalities of the ever-expanding legal defense team come into play and add substance to this novel. Then the story becomes far more interesting. This book is very well written and will be a treat for those who love the legal process and the crime scene as viewed by the police and prosecuting attorneys. Just be forewarned that much of it is a by-the-book statement of the facts, just the facts, ma'am.

Jonathan Hamilton is just such a person. His late night telephone call to the police alerts them to the fact that he has discovered that something terrible has happened to his grandparents. Unfortunately, the person who receives his call is not a detective, but merely a county employee who is manning the phones. Everyone else is away from this small town police department. When the state police finally do arrive, the crime scene has been corrupted, but the major facts are beyond dispute. 

Jonathan is covered in blood, as is much of the log cabin on Flat Lake that has been owned by his wealthy family for a hundred years. His grandparents are found upstairs lying on their bed and left covered in their own blood. They were murdered by multiple stab wounds from a five inch knife that is later discovered wrapped in a cloth in Jonathan's medicine cabinet. His DNA is found all over the crime scene. This would be understandable since he visits his grandparents for meals while he lives in a small cottage located elsewhere on the estate. Unfortunately, Jonathan is a little "slow," not quite retarded, but a little slow. He doesn't remember anything. Now the DA wants to sentence him to death, and his slowness will not be much of a defense since he is not quite retarded enough to escape death for this horrific crime.

Matt Fielder is one of those oddball residents who live in this northern New York county. An escapee from New York City and its pressure cooker of life, he now lives quietly by himself in a log cabin that he built on a 10 acre plot of woods. His needs are small and he lives as much as he can off the land. Once a high powered defense attorney, he has escaped his former profession with the one proviso that he will serve as a defense attorney in those rare cases where the DA is asking for the death sentence. The call quickly comes for him to serve as the lead defense attorney for Jonathan Hamilton.

Enjoy, enjoy a good read whenever you can. Carl