London, England. 1865.William and Hester Monk's dear friend the brilliant lawyer Sir Oliver Rathbone is in trouble. His wife, the former Margaret Ballinger has left him and is furious with him for not having properly defending her father the late Arthur Ballinger.Sir Oliver has been elevated to the bench and during only the second trial he has presided over he gets in big trouble. Because of a questionable piece of evidence he had introduced by the prosecuting attorney he is arrested for perverting the course of justice. He should have recused himself from the trial even though the defendant Abel Taft, a dishonest and hypocritical clergyman would probably gotten off without that piece of evidence.Sir Oliver's friends, Willam and Hester Monk, their foster child Scuff, Squeaky Robinson and Oliver's father Henry work feverishly to find any sort of extenuating circumstances which could alleviate Oliver's predicament.In the meantime Abel Taft has evidently murdered his wife and two children and then committed suicide. Because of this there is a lot of guilt being felt by any of those who feel they may have contributed to this tragedy. I will not spoil for the readers the outcome of all this, but I will say having a number of friends who will go the extra mile for you is often critically important. Yes, Anne Perry can and does write to a formula that is a bit trying at times, but the ideas she is actually writing about, in this book it is moral vs legal justice, make it worth reading. Oliver Rathbone in an earlier book became owner of photos that could be used to blackmail others, he debated getting rid of them but didn't and then he finds a witness in his court room who is included in the photos. Power corrupts, and this book is journey to seeing how it starts. The main problem I have is one of the mysteries in the book is who knew he owned the photos, and then exposed him. To me, the answer was too obvious from the start to creditably have these supposedly brilliant detectives not see it.
What do You think about Blind Justice (2013)?
Another great listen by Anne Perry, read by Davina Porter. I really enjoy the William Monk series.
—Seth
Very interesting philosophical questions about law and morality
—cutie_16
