The Shadow of Justice.

• Author: Pudlow, Jan
• Position: Book Review

The Shadow of Justice by Milton Hirsch Reviewed by Jan Pudlow

Sage advice from experienced criminal defense attorneys to novices: "You must never ask the client why."

Make sure their constitutional rights are protected. Keep the prosecutors and cops honest. Try to get your client off. But never ask why.

Milton Hirsch, a former prosecutor and seasoned Miami criminal defense lawyer, dares to explore that taboo question in his first novel he describes as not only a "whodunnit, but a whydunnit."

"I finally decided, look, we are all in the story of the emperor's new clothes. People come into the system and we help keep them moving along the conveyor belt, never asking the question that might stop the conveyor belt," Hirsch told the Journal. "I wrote this to oblige the system to confront the why question."

That philosophical dare is deftly carried out with a seamy, cocaine-laced murder mystery that unfolds at the Richard E. Gerstein Metro-Justice Building in Miami and the cafe-lined streets of Coconut Grove.

The story's ethical undercurrent is driven by the two main characters: the protagonist, 11th Circuit Judge Clark N. Addison, caught between the law and the truth, and flamboyant criminal defense lawyer John Wentworth "Blackjack" Sheridan IV, who "owned a small sailboat named The Blackjack, an on-again-off-again Southern accent, and a liver that a cat wouldn't eat."

Woven throughout an intriguing plot line that bends the truth and blurs guilt and innocence to shades of gray are snippets detailing the criminal trial process. Those descriptions--from jury selection to cross-examination techniques to sentencing--are so realistically rendered that the American Bar Association chose to publish The Shadow of Justice as the first in a new series called "Great Stories by Great Lawyers." As the ABA says in its release: "Part of the ABA's mission in establishing the series is to educate the public about the criminal justice system by illustrating the way it really works."

And the way it really works, day-by-day on crowded dockets, is a far cry from the lofty ideals taught in law school.

Here's how Judge Addison describes the goings-on in his courtroom:

"Behind me are the flags, American and Florida, and on the wall high above me a placard with the motto, 'We who labor here seek only Truth.' In truth, we who labor here seek many things. Truth is a luxury. Defendants seek a break; prosecutors seek a conviction; defense attorneys seek an acquittal and, if...