I'm going to put a short and sweet warning label on this one: D. W. Buffa is addicting. I was unfamiliar with his work until I picked up THE JUDGMENT, his third novel concerning defense attorney Joseph Antonelli. I had intended to read 20 pages or so before bedtime. I didn't stop reading until my eyelids rebelled some three hours later and threatened my system with total shutdown if I didn't put the book aside. My Fourth of July came and went, sacrificed to this account of deception and abuse of power and love and murder. No regrets. Buffa is incredible.
I'm able to find precious little biographical information about Buffa. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and was a defense attorney in the Portland, Oregon area for 10 years. If he practiced defense law for 10 years, he undoubtedly has enough anecdotal material to fill a whole shelf of books. At least.
THE JUDGMENT doesn't contain a lot of explosions, karate fights, or any of the other elements that make certain books great. What violence there is takes place, for the most part, off of the page and out of the main action. No. Buffa begins THE JUDGMENT with the funeral of Judge Calvin Jeffries and its aftermath. Jeffries, possessed with a brilliant legal mind that was instrumental in drafting Oregon procedural law, was governed by a corrupt spirit and an evil soul that manifested itself in vindictive rulings issued more for the purpose of punishing counsel for some unintentional or minor slight than for the administration of justice. Buffa's description of Jeffries, told through the recollections of Antonelli, are nothing short of perfect. Any attorney who has been in a courtroom with even semi-regularity will recognize Jeffries. What emerges is a portrait of an individual for whom no abuse of power is unthinkable if it enables him to get what he wants. And when he is found murdered, there is not exactly a lack of suspects.
The individual eventually arrested by the police, surprisingly enough, is a homeless man in the grip of a mental disorder. The man confesses to the crime and then commits suicide in his jail cell. Then a second judge is murdered under almost identical circumstances. An obvious suspect, another homeless individual with a severe mental disorder, is arrested with the murder weapon in his possession and the case seems closed. Antonelli, however, cannot believe that the cases, so similar, aren't somehow related. As he undertakes his representation of the defendant and begins his own investigation, Antonelli finds that the common element of both murders is rooted, shockingly, within his own past. At the same time, a former lover of Antonelli appears and reenters his life with secrets of her own. These elements combine and collide to provide a climax that will haunt and resonate with the reader long after their reading is completed.
Aficionados of the mystery genre will not find THE JUDGMENT particularly challenging from a "whodunit" standpoint. Buffa leaves plenty of clues and doesn't really rely on sleight of hand or misdirection to keep the reader guessing. Buffa's considerable, incredible strengths lie not with his ability to design a mystery, but with his narrative and descriptive skills. Some critics have taken him to task for his dialogue, noting that his characters sound as if they're giving a speech rather than conversing. This misses the point; Buffa infuses a dialogue into his characters such that it leaves the reader wishing that people did speak that way. Everyone in THE JUDGMENT tells a story, and everyone tells a story that is riveting. And Buffa, in THE JUDGMENT, is the grandmaster of it all.
If there is an insolvable mystery associated with THE JUDGMENT, it is why Buffa is not a household name at this point in his career. The man is a marvel; his ability to tell a story while holding a reader's interest is such that he leaves me in doubt as to my ability to even hold a pencil properly. If you're not a fan of Buffa's at this point, you should be; and if you read THE JUDGMENT, you will be.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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