James Morton picks out some legally themed books to keep you company on winter nights


BALLOT BOX TO JURY BOX
John Baker

Waterside Press, £17.50

Paperback



His Honour John Baker’s reminiscences are a gentle trawl from the 1950s to the present day, with anecdotes about the lawyers and magistrates of the time.



When Judge Baker qualified as a solicitor, he first worked for the lawyers to the Automobile Association, Amery-Parkes, getting his advocacy experience in the traffic courts. He then became a partner in (Lord) Arnold Goodman’s firm Goodman Derrick & Co in the 1950s, specialising in libel, copyright and the franchising of ITV. For a short time he was also a television pundit.



From his Oxford days, Mr Baker had been an active member of the Liberal Party – over the years thrice standing unsuccessfully for Parliament – and it was Sir Dingle Foot QC MP who suggested that he read for the bar and join his chambers. Appointed a circuit judge, Mr Baker later became the resident judge at Kingston upon Thames and sat as a deputy judge in the High Court.



Anecdotes include the cricket-loving judge who would deal with prostitutes at Marylebone en masse so he could be at Lords by 11.30am when stumps were pitched. Mr Baker also provides a defence to the criticisms levelled at Arnold Goodman over the Spectator libel action, when it was suggested that Richard Crossman and others had been drunk at a conference.



Mr Baker, who in the interest of saving time and costs was always prepared to see counsel in chambers with a shorthand writer present over pleas to be tendered, also writes interestingly on sentencing – he is against the three-strikes rule – and the necessity of imposing custodial sentences for sporting violence.







WINTER IN MADRID
CJ Sansom

Macavity’s, £12.99

Hardback



Solicitor-turned-writer CJ Sansom has already written two novels in his historical crime series featuring lawyer Matthew Shardlake, and a third is on the way. Now he changes direction completely.



Harry, a Spanish-speaking shell-shocked evacuee from Dunkirk, is sent by Intelligence to Madrid, still in ruins after the Civil War, to find out what his old school friend, the renegade Sandy, is up to. Harry had been to war-torn Spain a few years earlier to try to find the body of another school chum, the cockney communist Barrie, missing after the battle of Jamara. Meanwhile, Barrie’s former girlfriend is shacked up with Sandy, who is clearly up to no good. But is Barrie still alive?



Older readers may recall Dennis Wheatley, whose thrillers were so deservedly popular and who has now gone more or less completely out of fashion. There is something of the Wheatley ‘boys together derring-do’ about this real page-turner, and it is none the worse for that.







THE CAMEL CLUB
David Baldacci

Macmillan, £12.99

Hardback



Four old codgers who have seen better days are having a meeting of their four-member Camel Club on Teddy Roosevelt Island in Washington, naturally at dead of night, when someone dumps a body not 50 yards away.



A quick inspection before they are chased off by the murderer shows that it is that of a secret service agent. And since the Camel Club is a collection of conspiracy theorists, here’s a ready-made investigation for them. Meanwhile, another agent, Alex Ford, quite correctly does not agree with the suicide verdict recorded, and he is soon off on a spree of his own with the sparky female agent Jackie Simpson in tow.



And quite what are the agendas of intelligence chief Carter Grey and the sinister Tom Harrison – let alone those of assorted Iranians, Afghans and Iraqis? Meanwhile, will the President survive a visit to his home town which has renamed itself after him?



While the characters are pretty standard, David Baldacci has a long list of credits when it comes to these intelligence thrillers. This one has enough twists, turns and swoops in its roller-coaster plot to keep anyone happy.







THE CIPHER GARDEN
Martin Edwards

Allison & Busby, £13.99

Hardback



Martin Edwards is another lawyer-writer who has changed direction having, at least temporarily, abandoned his Liverpool lawyer detective Harry Devlin. The Cipher Garden features DCI Hannah Scarlett looking into the murder of Warren Howe, scythed to death at his home in the Lake District by a mysterious hooded figure some years earlier. Now the CID has received a tip-off that the killer was Howe’s widow and the case is reopened.



Meanwhile, historian Daniel Kind is having a little trouble with his blonde girlfriend Miranda. She is going to have to spend more time in London – something which every divorce lawyer knows spells trouble for a relationship. After all, it was her idea to move to the Lake District in the first place. How will this all fit into the investigation?



Martin Edwards is both a clever plotter and a writer who can build and destroy a character or a relationship with a word here and a word there. He can also cliff-hang with the best of them. There is clearly a great deal more mileage in Hannah Scarlett, who looks set to rival Devlin as a series character. Meanwhile, the good news for Devlin fans is that Harry himself will be returning shortly.





James Morton is a former criminal law specialist solicitor and now a freelance journalist