Kill All The Lawyers

by William Deverell

Arthur P. Besterman, criminal lawyer and reformed alcoholic, was the first to go. Counsel to Vancouver's assorted shifters and grifters, Besterman almost always lost his cases. But a recent victory defending a low-life client might be a clue as to why he as bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Then someone takes a pot shot at philandering lawyer Brian Pomeroy after he successfully defends a group of controversial eco-terrorists. All of a sudden lawyers whose clients are less than savoury start second-guessing the ethics of their profession, and going to court becomes possible bloodsport.
In a cat-and-mouse game involving the better part of Vancouver's legal community, Pomeroy's firm (the famous Pomeroy, MacArthur, Brovak and Sage from the best-selling Dance of Shiva) pieces together some very disturbing truths about lawyers and the law. As one sleazy lawyer after another disappears, the reader can't help but ponder the wisdom of Shakespeare's famous dictum, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Canada

332 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published September 9, 1995

About the author

William Deverell was born in 1937 in Regina, Saskatchewan. He put himself through law school by working as a journalist for the Canadian Press, Vancouver Sun, and Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. Deverell served as counsel for over a thousand criminal cases and is a founding director and former president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. He created the television series, Street Legal, and has written screenplays and radio plays. Deverell lives on Pender Island, British Columbia.

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
* 1998 – Trial of Passion – Winner
* 2006 – April Fool – Winner

Reviews

[Marc Leroux · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a review of the audio version of Kill All The Lawyers by William Deverell Narrated by Steve Scherf and Beverley Elliott.

I picked up this audiobook on the strength of Needles, which I listened to a few weeks back. That was an interesting book, good enough for me to go and get the other two available on audio.

A lawyer is killed after successfully defending a client in Vancouver. Shortly after, there are a few near misses and then a second lawyer is killed. What started as a tragedy quickly escalates into panic among the Vancouver legal community; someone is taking Shakespeare all too seriously: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
The story follows a series of characters through this period, dealing with all their secrets, including one of the main characters escape to the Caribbean to avoid a divorce suit after his wife discovers his extramarital affair. All of this is done in an entertaining, fun way. I think that Deverell really wanted to write a book in the mystery style of, say, an Agatha Christie. The result is a thoroughly Canadian take, complete with wit and humor, and lawyerly sex escapades thrown in for good measure. The ending had some great twists, an excellent homage to the genre of Christie or Rex Stout.
This book could have been difficult to listen to. It jumps from character to character, locale to locale, and while it may have been easy to follow in print form, listening to it while dodging traffic in a car could have been challenging. The reason that it wasn't is entirely due to the tremendous narration of Steve Scherf. He doesn't just read the narrative, he brings the characters to life, each with a distinctive voice. It is a genuine pleasure to hear him narrate the book.
Good book, excellent narration - 5 stars

[Richard Schwindt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't read William Deverell for years but found a copy of Kill All the Lawyers prior to an island vacation while loitering in a thrift shop. I picked it up and discovered a great crime thriller, but also the funniest book I read all year. Deverell writes out of the wacky legal society of Vancouver B.C., which, according to him, is composed of oddballs, reprobates and occasionally corrupt lawyers, cops and judges. When someone decides to hurry along attrition in this community by means of murder, two of the early targets belong to the august firm of Pomeroy, MacArthur, Brovak and Sage. Narrated variously by letter, third person, and the lived experience of hapless articling student Wentworth Chance, Kill All the Lawyers tells a coherent, suspenseful and hilarious story. Highly recommended over expensive wine, charged to an expense account.

[Byron Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strangely compelling book about Vancouver defense lawyers, and how they react when their colleagues begin getting killed one by one.

The writing was enviably good, particularly the pithy dialogue. But I was most impressed with the author’s interweaving of the various characters’ paths - exceptionally well done.

I didn’t find this as humorous as some reviews have made out, but that was not one bit a detractor.

I enjoyed this tremendously and would easily recommend it.

I didn’t give this a five solely because one thread of the story was written in letters by a particularly ego-centric and vapid lawyer. Perhaps it is to the author’s credit that he conveyed too well how annoying that particular character’s narcissism was.

If you enjoy a bit of irreverence, a nice twisty murder, or a bit of Elmor Leonard, then you should enjoy this. Very underrated and well worth picking up.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, although I will say it took me a little bit to really get in to the story line. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mindset, but it almost seemed like there were too many characters introduced all at once and it was hard to get them straight. As well, the author switched between using first name / last name / nickname before I was really familiar with the character and so that led to a bit of minor confusion.

This is the second book I have read by the same author and while I enjoyed this one and the ending was satisfying, I did enjoy his previous read slightly more.

I received this ARC for free from ECW press (thank you!) but opinions are my own.

[MaryDale Esposito · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was hard to get in to the story, it dragged, and it was hard to keep the characters straight.

[Arianna M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t believe there are at least five other books with this title. And, like every book whose title is actually a Shakespearean quote in disguise, this one is full of pomp. The twist was interesting, if unbelievable.

[DebPei]

A neighbour lent me this book. It’s not my genre so I didn’t love it. Am not rating it and would not recommend. You might feel differently if you like murder mysteries. Felt amateurish.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Leacock-style funny story, not my taste

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not the target audience for this.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A grudging "3". We had read a lot of Deverell's books in the past and I wanted to do a memory check before I decided to add some of his books to the Bump Memorial Library. I got hold of a used hardcover copy of KILL ALL THE LAWYERS and we cycled it into our read-aloud list. Alas, it didn't make the cut.

The plot was interesting enough and that is what kept us reading to the end. The big problem was that there is nobody in the book to like. And — we've had occasion to complain about this in other books — Deverell has this annoying tic of giving too many characters silly names: Leroy Lukey, Everit Cudlipp, Olive Klimchuk, Twelve Fingers Watson, Wentworth Chase (Chase is okay, but the young man is from Fort Nelson... who in Fort Nelson would name their kid Wentworth?). Neither of us believed Pomeroy's letters home from Costa Rica.

As I said a reluctant "3".

This was book #38 on our 2016 Read-alouds List. (And — just maybe — that was the reason we kept on read: to pad out our list for the year??)

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, although too much time is spent on the sexual fantasies of various lawyers. (April Fool, the previous book in the series seemed to be all about how much pot people smoked. Even for B.C. it seemed a bit much.)

It's also chilling to note how unequal we are before the law - an internet spammer is not investigated because he is related to a prominent lawyer, a judge is not called to be cross-examined because he is a judge and it would be too embarassing to the system to have him up on the stand.

Am I reading too much from a work of fiction? Maybe, but the author is a former lawyer, and one of the pleasures of crime fiction is the realistic depiction of time and place.

[Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

- someone is killing all the great lawyers of Vancouver