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The release of William Bernhardt's series of legal thrillers featuring Tulsa attorney Ben Kincaid has become an annual event greeted with quiet but heartfelt anticipation by a growing legion of readers. Kincaid, one-half of the law firm of Kincaid & McCall, is a bit hapless in his personal life and on the business end of his professional one; it is in the courtroom where he hums along on all four cylinders, functioning at his fullest potential. Bernhardt has been building Kincaid's background and personality slowly and carefully, using dribs and drabs of those elements to cement an interesting and occasionally frustrating background to plots that have become more complex. Bernhardt has at the same time become more confident and sure-footed in his efforts. His new novel HATE CRIME is a reward for those readers who have faithfully followed Bernhardt from the beginning.
This is by far Bernhardt's most ambitious effort to date, and his best. A great deal of Kincaid's past is revealed as it suddenly collides with his present. Bernhardt moves Kincaid and Christina McCall, Kincaid's law partner and erstwhile romantic interest, temporarily out of Tulsa and into Chicago, due to a case that seems unwinnable and a client who appears at once indefensible and reprehensible. Johnny Christensen is charged with killing a man named Tony Barovick, motivated entirely by Barovick's sexual orientation. Christensen admits the beating, but denies that he murdered Barovick. The case though appears to be a slam-dunk against him.
When Ellen Christensen, Johnny's stepmother, approaches the Kincaid & McCall firm and asks that they represent him, Kincaid abruptly refuses, notwithstanding that the case contains the elements that would otherwise seem to appeal to him the most: it's a seemingly unwinnable case, with an indefensible defendant. McCall elects to undertake the defense by herself partly because of Kincaid's reticence and his strangely negative reaction to Ellen. Kincaid eventually and reluctantly joins Christensen's defense when his sense of justice and the challenge of winning an apparently unwinnable case carry the day.
As Kincaid and McCall delve more deeply into the case, they discover that there are others who had both opportunity and motive to murder Barovick. Kincaid is assisted to some extent by his friend Mike Morelli of the Tulsa Police, whose own romantic complications provide an interesting counterpoint to Kincaid's. Morelli finds that a case of his own may have some bearing on Kincaid's. Little do they know that there are individuals who are willing to do anything to keep Kincaid and McCall from obtaining an acquittal of their client and finding the real murderer. Of almost equal significance, however, more about Kincaid's past is revealed as we learn why his personal life is so lacking. HATE CRIME, in its conclusion, provides a possible change in that situation as well.
Those readers who have steadfastly stuck with Bernhardt and Kincaid will be thrilled once again with this book. Bernhardt takes chances with his characters here and continues to grow and improve as a craftsman, making the reader the clear winner. Additionally, there is a sly, quick reference to Eminem that only sharp-eyed readers will catch. With HATE CRIME, Bernhardt should earn a spot on many thriller fans' "must read" lists, if he's not there already.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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