Author Description

Product Description A hard-boiled Los Angeles criminal lawyer copes with a son in trouble, a passion for his biggest client's wife, and cops who want to pin a murder on him From Publishers Weekly Deighton's latest, an enjoyable departure from his tales of British espionage ( City of Gold, etc.), introduces a protagonist with definite series potential. Harried L.A. lawyer Mickey Murphy is plagued by a slew of eccentrics who fully bear out the book's epigraph: "If America is a lunatic asylum then California is the Violent Ward." Among them are an ex-wife who tries to get more alimony by perching on the ledge outside his office, a slightly over-the-hill actor in search of a handgun, a Robert Maxwell clone called Sir Jeremy Westbridge and a Trump-like entrepreneur named Zach Petrovich, who owns Murphy's law firm and is married to his high school sweetheart. Their maneuverings spark a complicated plot whose many ramifications include a charitable organization that doubles as a clearinghouse for those seeking to fake their own deaths and the set-up of a tax-free Peruvian corporation through the use of bearer shares, but Murphy keeps all the craziness in perspective with a first-person narration that unfolds as a series of quiet, subtle surprises. Told in perfect Dashiell Hammett style, with the clues all noted but never underlined, this novel respects the reader's intelligence and almost begs for a rereading just to savor how skillfully Deighton has woven everything together. Author tour.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author Born in London, he served in the RAF before graduating from the Royal College of Art (which recently elected him a Senior Fellow). While in New York City working as a magazine illustrator he began writing his first novel, The Ipcress File, which was published in 1962. He is now the author of more than thirty books of fiction and non-fiction. At present living in Europe, he has, over the years, lived with his family in ten different countries from Austria to Portugal. From School Library Journal YA-A masterfully crafted tale awaits both teens seeking leisure reading and those looking for a contemporary author for a literature assignment. Within the first six pages, evidence is given to support the title lead in: "If America is a lunatic asylum, then California is the Violent Ward." The lives of Mickey Murphy, a LA criminal lawyer; and the entire cast of con artists and people on the cusp of legitimacy, Hollywood wannabes, old friends, and especially Mickey's childhood sweetheart, Mrs. Ingrid Petrovitch, are deftly woven into this plot that is full of humor and unexpected twists and turns. The surrealistic combination of media coverage juxtaposed with the first-person accounts of the rioting following the first Rodney King trial provides a fitting context for the physical and intellectual resolution of this story.Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VACopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review ‘Deighton’s ear for dialogue and eye for lunatic-California are perfect’Sunday Express‘A blistering read… The guessing game continues to the final page’Time Out‘Crime at its most entertaining, filled with lively dialogue’Sunday Telegraph‘Superbly edgy. Entertaining, full of good one-liners’Sunday Times From Kirkus Reviews What's a veteran cold war novelist to do when there's no more cold war? In the case of British spymaster Deighton, head west for a knotty, if zesty, seriocomic thriller set against Aspen snow and L.A. sleaze. You suspect Deighton's off stride when he starts with a small cheat: Mickey Murphy--a rumpled L.A. attorney whose appealingly grumpy narration energizes the story--huddles behind his desk, trying not to frighten ``the woman'' perched on his office window ledge. Mickey finally coaxes ``the woman'' inside--and only then tells us that she's his ex-wife, angling for a handout. Mickey's da