Rating: 
Summary: Great legal thriller
Review: See book summary above.With Bernhardts latest, he proves to be one of the best legal thriller writers out there. The storyline and it's subplots-- one hinting on how weak minds can become so brainwashed into believing something--makes for a great and sometimes graphically violent novel.
Keep'em coming William. Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent plotting
Review: Some crimes are more repulsive than others are, as Major Mike Morelli of the Tulsa PD Homicide Division knows very well. He along with the FBI and a swat team are trying to rescue an eight-year-old boy who was kidnapped eight days ago. The police know where they are and plan to neutralize the kidnappers so they will not kill the boy. When they finally make a move, the child is unharmed but the kidnappers are missing. In Chicago, two homophobic college men beat a gay bartender within an inch of his life but they leave him alive when they walked away. His body was found in the perpetrator's fraternity house very much dead. When one of the defendants and his lawyer is killed in open court, the remaining defendant's mother asks lawyer Ben Kincaid to defend him. He declines for personal reasons but his partner agrees to take the case not realizing everyone connected to the case is in danger because it is linked back to the kidnapping in Tulsa. William Bernhardt is one of the best writers of legal thrillers in today's competitive sub-genre. His protagonist is a vulnerable champion of the underdog who believes everyone has the right to an attorney. The reason he refuses the case involving a relationship he had with the suspect's mother that ended badly and gives the reader a glimpse into his battered soul. When he becomes involved in the case, he does not let his personal feelings interfere with the job and readers will root for him to prevail even though they detest the person he represents. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Bernhardt's Most Ambitious Effort to Date --- And His Best
Review: The release of William Bernhardt's series of legal thrillers featuring Tulsa attorney Ben Kincaid has become an annual event greeted with quiet but heartfelt anticipation by a growing legion of readers. Kincaid, one-half of the law firm of Kincaid & McCall, is a bit hapless in his personal life and on the business end of his professional one; it is in the courtroom where he hums along on all four cylinders, functioning at his fullest potential. Bernhardt has been building Kincaid's background and personality slowly and carefully, using dribs and drabs of those elements to cement an interesting and occasionally frustrating background to plots that have become more complex. Bernhardt has at the same time become more confident and sure-footed in his efforts. His new novel HATE CRIME is a reward for those readers who have faithfully followed Bernhardt from the beginning. This is by far Bernhardt's most ambitious effort to date, and his best. A great deal of Kincaid's past is revealed as it suddenly collides with his present. Bernhardt moves Kincaid and Christina McCall, Kincaid's law partner and erstwhile romantic interest, temporarily out of Tulsa and into Chicago, due to a case that seems unwinnable and a client who appears at once indefensible and reprehensible. Johnny Christensen is charged with killing a man named Tony Barovick, motivated entirely by Barovick's sexual orientation. Christensen admits the beating, but denies that he murdered Barovick. The case though appears to be a slam-dunk against him. When Ellen Christensen, Johnny's stepmother, approaches the Kincaid & McCall firm and asks that they represent him, Kincaid abruptly refuses, notwithstanding that the case contains the elements that would otherwise seem to appeal to him the most: it's a seemingly unwinnable case, with an indefensible defendant. McCall elects to undertake the defense by herself partly because of Kincaid's reticence and his strangely negative reaction to Ellen. Kincaid eventually and reluctantly joins Christensen's defense when his sense of justice and the challenge of winning an apparently unwinnable case carry the day. As Kincaid and McCall delve more deeply into the case, they discover that there are others who had both opportunity and motive to murder Barovick. Kincaid is assisted to some extent by his friend Mike Morelli of the Tulsa Police, whose own romantic complications provide an interesting counterpoint to Kincaid's. Morelli finds that a case of his own may have some bearing on Kincaid's. Little do they know that there are individuals who are willing to do anything to keep Kincaid and McCall from obtaining an acquittal of their client and finding the real murderer. Of almost equal significance, however, more about Kincaid's past is revealed as we learn why his personal life is so lacking. HATE CRIME, in its conclusion, provides a possible change in that situation as well. Those readers who have steadfastly stuck with Bernhardt and Kincaid will be thrilled once again with this book. Bernhardt takes chances with his characters here and continues to grow and improve as a craftsman, making the reader the clear winner. Additionally, there is a sly, quick reference to Eminem that only sharp-eyed readers will catch. With HATE CRIME, Bernhardt should earn a spot on many thriller fans' "must read" lists, if he's not there already. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: Further exploration
Review: This Ben Kincaid mystery further explores both the surface
interactions between Ben and his partner Christina as well
as the concept of a "hate" crime.
Here, a gay man is tortured and murdered, apparently by two
stupid, drunken college frat boys, and when Ben, the champion
of the unpopular defendant, is asked to defend one of them,
he surprisingly refuses. Everyone who knows him is mystified.
But then his partner Christina, over his objections, takes on the defense, and the case plods along with the defendant looking
worse all the time.
A parallel case, which doesn't seem to have any connection with
the gay murder, is also tackled, and Ben's pal, the Tulsa PD
detective who loves driving his vintage high-powered Pontiac,
is working that one. The Tulsa case involved a kidnapping with
ransom, where the victim was left unharmed, but the kidnappers
suddenly, and surprisingly since they were surrounded by both
local police and the FBI, disappear. Mike, the detective, pursues the case as long as possible, until his superiors assign
him to more current cases. But Mike doesn't forget, and he keeps trying to remember details of some aspect of the case that
is in the background of his mind and won't go away.
As Christina's case is nearing its end, with virtually no hope,
Ben is visited by the defendant's mother, and that whole visit
is quite mysterious, and Ben's office-mates wonder what is going on. Christina is determined to learn how and why that other woman seems to know Ben, when Ben denies such knowledge.
This Kincaid entry is rather more complex than most of these,
and the cases come to a nice conclusion; the only drawback to
many readers will be that the ending is a bit too pat and too
sudden. It has a feel that the author sort of took the easy
way out at the end by offering up a solution that isn't entirely
logical.
But it is interesting and very readable.
Rating:
Summary: A Painful Book to Read
Review: This is one of the most painful books I've read in a long time. It was so violent but I felt I had to read every word because the horrendous beating was so integral to the story. I had to keep closing my eyes to try to get the images to go away but it didn't work. Unfortunately, most of the people who could learn from the book will never read it but it is important to keep writing about the hatred in our society. I live in the Chicago area and was quite interested in having the book set here after all we have been through with the death penalty.
I think Ben is a fascinating character and, while slow, his social development is coming along. At this point, I think he is only ready to take care of the cats although this book truly, but painfully, peeled off several layers of his psyche. I am fascinated to see where he will go from here.
I always feel that I am back with old acquaintances when I read one of these books. The characters have become so familiar that I find myself thinking back to how they appeared in previous books. I am always amazed at how he can insert such snappy dialog into a story as jarring as this one but then I realize that this keeps us further off balance. The exchange between Christina and Jones about Scrabble is priceless, as is Baxter's realization about Dr. Seuss.
I feel that the characters and plots are first-rate as is the writing and the editing. The only criticism I have is that we have to wait another year for the next book!
Rating:
Summary: A Painful Book to Read
Review: This is one of the most painful books I've read in a long time. It was so violent but I felt I had to read every word because the horrendous beating was so integral to the story. I had to keep closing my eyes to try to get the images to go away but it didn't work. Unfortunately, most of the people who could learn from the book will never read it but it is important to keep writing about the hatred in our society. I live in the Chicago area and was quite interested in having the book set here after all we have been through with the death penalty.
I think Ben is a fascinating character and, while slow, his social development is coming along. At this point, I think he is only ready to take care of the cats although this book truly, but painfully, peeled off several layers of his psyche. I am fascinated to see where he will go from here.
I always feel that I am back with old acquaintances when I read one of these books. The characters have become so familiar that I find myself thinking back to how they appeared in previous books. I am always amazed at how he can insert such snappy dialog into a story as jarring as this one but then I realize that this keeps us further off balance. The exchange between Christina and Jones about Scrabble is priceless, as is Baxter's realization about Dr. Seuss.
I feel that the characters and plots are first-rate as is the writing and the editing. The only criticism I have is that we have to wait another year for the next book!
Rating: 
Summary: Liberal polemics replace mystery fiction
Review: What began as a great mystery series has now degenerated into a liberal polemic. Every book Bernhardt writes now is promoting his liberal world view: against the death penalty, pro-homosexula rights, anti-biblical Christian, etc. etc. While one can tolerate an author inserting political views subtly in the middle of an engaging story, this is little more than an essay for some liberal nonfiction publication. I hope Bernhardt gets back to writing mystery fiction.
While Bernhardt began the Ben Kincaid series writing entertaining tales with an heroic young lawyer, the last few books have degenerated into liberal clap-trap: anti-death penalty, Christians who believe the Bible are idiots, that sort of thing. It has become rather tiresome.
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