A Show of Violence

Antony Maitland #23

by Sara Woods

Antony Maitland, barrister and very confidential detective, reluctantly journeys to a gray town in the English Midlands to defend a young boy who is, on the face of it, guilty of murder and art theft. Maitland’s problems are not reduced by the boy’s mysterious unwillingness to say anything on his own behalf beyond the baldest explanation; and as long as the boy refused to speak there was no possible line of defence. In order to save his client from what, Maitland finally realizes, will be a gross miscarriage of justice, he has to piece together the boy’s troubled past and, in the process, stumbles across a web of criminal intent in which the boy is just one victim—and Maitland the other.(Publisher’s description)

Genres: Mystery

156 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

(Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd)
UK (1922 - 1986)
aka Anne Burton, Mary Challis, Margaret Leek

Born in England, she was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Filey, Yorkshire.

During the Second World War, she worked in a bank and as a solicitor's clerk in London. Here she gained much of the information later used in her novels. Lana married Anthony George Bowen-Judd on April 25, 1946. They ran a pig breeding farm between 1948 and 1954. In 1957 they moved to Nova Scotia, Canada. She worked as a registrar for St. Mary's University until 1964. In 1961 she wrote her first novel, Bloody Instructions, introducing the hero of forty-nine of her mysteries, Anthony Maitland, an English barrister.

Her last years she lived with her husband at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

Reviews

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een kleine week in de rechtbank geweest. Gewoon leuk om te lezen hoe het een beetje in zijn werk gaat. Hoeveel geld en macht een rol spelen, en dat het niet belangrijk is dat een onschuldig kind er voor opdraait. Gelukkig loopt het goed af. Het is een kort verhaal maar alles zit erin. Heel knap

[☯Emily Ginder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this book five times. I have especially loved this book in the past. I enjoy reading Sara Woods' mysteries starring a defense lawyer named Antony Maitland, an unorthodox attorney who is always investigating his own cases.

This time Maitland is asked to defend a 13 year old boy who is accused of murder. Tommy won't talk or give his defense team any clues to help his case. In fact, no one knows who he is and if his name is even Tommy. I enjoy how Antony goes about trying to help his client.

During this last reading, I began to think that Maitland's thought processes seems a little too omniscient. He can't always be right in interpreting clues!

[Kees Jansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice plot with Anthony Maitland as main character.