REVIEW
The Waxwork Corpse by Simon Michael
Charles Holborne Legal Thriller #5
1940 – war – a bit about Charlie’s life during the air raids that will come back to haunt him in the books is then followed by…
1965 – a body found in deep water – leads to a very intriguing case that will bring Charlie on as Queen’s Counsel.
Thrown into the mix – Charlie’s family and issues related to his relationship with his parents and the religion he was born into but has pretty much left behind.
So...with threads aplenty and a case to prepare for this story was a humdinger. I wasn’t sure at first where it was going with the time jump, body, and all the rest but the race to the end, the twists and turns, the feeling I had at the end...well...this was such a good book that I immediately sent an email to my siblings telling them to look for this book and this series and also had to tweet about it, too.
What I liked:
* That the story is related to a real case from the past
* Charles: smart, human, a person I want to know better – a good lawyer but one who can see how the game is played
* That I did not like the murder victim and might have wanted to murder her myself
* The way the story picked up speed along the way
* The side story dealing with his family
* That it made me think about the religion I grew up with and left behind (not the one in the book – another one)
* The era and setting of the book
* The twists I was not able to anticipate
* Everything
Some of the thoughts I wrote down as I read:
* Oh my! Gobsmacked and then – Oh my! Again
* Gamesmanship
* Masterful
* English law cagier?
* Puzzling – a puzzle
* Smart – like it – caught my total interest – especially at page 210
* The Law – all just a dramatic exercise
* Tantalizing
* Cunning
* Really good
* Need to find the first four books to learn more about Charles
* Have to look up rams’ horn and listen to what it sounds like (and it reminded me of the sound my brother used to toot out of a long cow’s horn scaring neighbors as they passed by).
Did I like this book? Oh my...YES
Would I read more by this author/in this series? Without a doubt
Thank you to Sapere Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.
5 Stars
BLURB
Charles Holborne is back – with his strangest case to date! Perfect for fans of John Grisham, Robert Bailey, Michael Connelly and Robert Dugoni. A deadly crime has been dragged to the surface… London, 1965 Charles Holborne, maverick barrister, will never fit in at the Bar; he is too working-class, too Jewish and too dangerous. But that makes him the perfect outsider to prosecute a shocking murder case which has already made its way to the press. By chance, a body was found, dumped in a lake. It had clearly been there for some time, but the conditions in the water have meant that it was nearly perfectly preserved. The police have managed to match this ‘waxwork corpse’ to a missing woman and if her husband — a senior judge — was the one who killed her, the scandal threatens to rock the British justice to its foundations. The waxwork corpse is not the only thing to be raised from the past. The investigation also dredges up a violent mistake made by Charles in his youth which, if revealed, could put his own life at stake… THE WAXWORK CORPSE , based on a real Old Bailey case, is the fifth crime novel in an exciting historical series, the Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers — gritty, hard-boiled mysteries set in 1960s London. THE CHARLES HOLBORNE LEGAL THRILLERS SERIES BOOK ONE: The Brief BOOK TWO: An Honest Man BOOK THREE: The Lighterman BOOK FOUR: Corrupted BOOK FIVE: The Waxwork Corpse