Independent Witness

Rating:
Summary: not the same ol' thing
Review: I stumbled upon this book quite be accident and boy, am I glad I did. This takes you through the events following a collision between a car and a motorcycle. It records the event as seen from the point of view of eight different witnesses, all who may or may not have seen what they think they saw. This may not sound like it would make for fascinating reading, but trust me on this, it really does! The writing is superb, the plot speeds along (no pun intended), and the characterizations are often hilarious. Suffice to say that this is not your ordinary mystery. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!

Rating:
Summary: A funny and refreshingly different legal mystery
Review: This is a humorous legal British mystery first published in 1963. A car and a motorcycle collide and after a brief pause, the car driver leaves the scene of the accident. Many folks at a nearby pub are on hand to help the injured motorcyclist and to speak to the police about what they saw. None of them has any connection to the men involved in the accident (i.e., they are independent witnesses) and all claim the car driver ran the halt sign. An M.P. confesses to being the driver but insists he stopped at the sign, albeit briefly. He claims he left the scene because he had just had a panic-inducing call from his sick wife.

Much of the book consists of the courtroom examination and cross-examination of the independent witnesses. Some of them are quite eccentric, and their testimony is a hoot. The only sour note is struck when the author briefly goes off a tangent that minimizes the plight of domestic violence victims. I grimaced but kept reading. As Cecil was a judge, I especially wish his views were more enlightened. Yet the passage could very well be somewhat *less* offensive than a typical judge's view of domestic violence four decades ago. That bit aside, this was a quick, fun, and amusing read.