Riveting whodunnit set in the Swinging Sixties

This courtroom drama is set in London amid the popular music scene of the 1960s. A country still coping with the aftermath of the second world war is transforming into a permissive society based on pleasure and material wealth. 

The hero of the tale is a barrister, who is an outsider from a working-class Jewish background. He has faced prejudice and opposition throughout his career. The reader is drawn into his orbit. All the characters are well drawn, including prosecutor, clerks and other counsel. Non-legal people are equally well described. 

The pacy story, which has many twists and turns, revolves around the death of an underage girl from a drug overdose. A music promoter and fixer is told he is about to be arrested. In the courtroom, cross-examination of key witnesses is done well. 

There is great attention to detail. Set around Tin Pan Alley in London, I learned what the derivation of ‘the Old Grey Whistle Test’ is, a phrase subsequently used for a television programme. 

The story is about the great days of the profession, pre-PACE, and using Judges’ Rules. I wonder how many practitioners have heard of them, let alone remember them. Barristers had a wider scope for objecting without explanation to jurors and hearings were not recorded. 

This murder trial lasts just a few days. I like the tetchy, old and very ill judge who is continually checking he still has a packet of cigarettes on him when the court rises. He is equally short-tempered with both sides.  

This is the tenth in a series of legal thrillers featuring Charles Holborne. There are heavy hints he will soon take silk, and hopefully later make the bench, becoming another ill-mannered judge who is nevertheless fair – or will he? 

This book is a great whodunnit. 

David Pickup is a partner at Pickup & Scott Solicitors, Aylesbury