A Cure for Night.

• Author: MacQueen, Kim
• Position: Book review

A Cure for Night

By Justin Peacock

As Joel Deveraux, the protagonist in Cure for Night, sinks his teeth into criminal defense work in Brooklyn, he thinks of a truism floated past him in law school: "A criminal trial is a search for the truth, but the defense lawyer isn't a member of the search party."

The quote sets the tone for Justin Peacock's first book, an unconventional legal thriller that wants to expose the underside of criminal law. The defense attorneys populating Cure for Night often function less like defenders of truth than they do storytellers, spinning tales they hope juries will believe.

The problem is not that Deveraux and his spunky, attractive cohort and possible love interest lack energy or idealism--they've got plenty of both. They're well-educated, thoughtful, and resourceful hard workers, and with their caseloads, they'd have to be. The problem, mostly, is the tricky navigation necessary in a seemingly set-up-to-fail justice system, building cases for clients who are ultimately better at working that system than they are.

Deveraux is new to the Brooklyn public defenders' office, fresh from six months probation following a dizzying, drug-related fall from grace--he's let go from his first job out of law school, at a prestigious white shoe firm, after the paralegal he's been palling around with turns up dead of a heroin overdose in the firm's bathroom. Not only does he...