Violent Ward - Tapa dura

In 'Violent Ward', Len Deighton, the author of bestselling international thrillers, has created a lively and entertaining new character, Mickey Murphy, a criminal lawyer working in Los Angeles.

A subversive and abrasive individual not happy to part with his cash, Mickey has a classic Cadillac of which he is enormously proud, an office in a seedy downtown neighbourhood, a Hollywood-bound ex-wife who always needs money, a son at USC ('the University of Spoiled Children') and clients who would plead the Fifth Amendment if they could only count that high.

One thing Mickey does not need is to be pulled in as a suspect for a brutal murder, but that is just what happens when he starts asking questions on behalf of Ingrid Petrovich, his childhood sweetheart. Ingrid has come back into Mickey's life because her husband, self-made millionaire and street-smart entrepreneur Zack Petrovitch, has bought into Mickey's firm, probably with the idea of buying Mickey too...

What is the shady business that Ingrid has got him involved in? And how does it connect with the odd English couple Victor Crichton and Sir Jeremy Westbridge, not to mention the Reverend Edgar Stojil, otherwise known as Rainbow?

'Violent Ward' is a fast-paced, suspenseful picture of the unique people and lifestyle of Southern California, building to a breathtaking climax on the riot-torn streets of South Central Los Angeles. And it is vintage Deighton.

With a mother named Fitzgerald the Irish dimension comes naturally to Len Deighton, who lived in Ireland for more than a decade. He is the author of more than thirty books of fiction and non-fiction, including such novels as 'City of Gold, Mamista,' the 'Spy Hook, Spy Line,' and 'Spy Sinker' trilogy as well as 'Funeral in Berlin, The Ipcress File' and 'Winter'. His highly researched histories and novels of World War II such as 'Fighter, Bomber' and 'Goodbye Mickey Mouse' have all appeared to international acclaim.

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 1961. At present living in Europe, he has over the years lived with his family in ten different countries from Austria to Portugal.

Here me out, buddy: They say: If America is a lunatic asylum then California is the Violent Ward. This is the place where Rodney King gets prime time. My name is Murphy and I'm a Mick lawyer with an ex-wife who sends her astrologer around demanding money so she can pay off her orthodontist. My kid has hocked his 9mm Browning using false ID. I'm in love with the wife of my wealthiest client and the cops are trying to pin a nasty homicide on me.

But there's no recession in the crime industry and my business is fine, or it might be if my German secretary could write and speak English, and my clients didn't get wasted before they paid my bills. The kind of crooks I defend never plead the Fifth because they can't count that far.

Okay, okay: So nobody loves a lawyer.

See ya in court.
M. MURPHY
ATTORNEY AT LAW