"The Lighterman" by Simon Michael

The Kray twins, a pair of vicious London gangsters, are after attorney Charles Holborne, and they don’t seem to be able to quit.

Holborne, whose original named was Horowitz, from a kosher Jewish family in London’s East End, made a bad mistake. He was able to get the Krays’ attorney acquitted. The Krays wanted him found guilty and sent away for a good long time. And now Holborne is on the Kray’s “list,”

Which means they want him eliminated. 

It’s 1964. The corruption in the London underworld is matched only by the corruption in the police force. The police see what’s happening and decide they’re not interested in investigating. Charles manages to evade several attempts on his life, although one costs him about 30 stitches. The one he’s not expecting happens when he gets assigned to handle a murder brief, and the suspect is Izzy Conway. Izzy’s going to get the death penalty anyway, so the Krays tell him they’ll take care of his mother if he offs Charles. They even arrange for a weapon, smuggled in by a prison guard.

Simon Michael

What the Krays don’t know is that Izzy is Charles’s first cousin. They’ve known each other since 1940, when Charles left his kosher family and went to work with Izzy’s on barges running the Thames. Being a lighterman – working on flat-bottomed barges – was the most dangerous work imaginable at the time, the favorite target of German bombers during the Blitz. Charles was only 15 but big for his age, and it was the best time of his life. Two years later, he was reclaimed by his parents and eventually joined the RAF. After the war, he went to Cambridge, changed his name, married the daughter of a title, and became an attorney in London’s Temple. But the wife is now dead, he has a reputation with the profession and the police, and the Krays are after him.

The Lighterman is the third in the Charles Holborne mysteries by Simon Michael, and it’s a stunning story of corruption, criminal gangs, the legal profession, and one man’s belief in the law – and how he’s forced to compromise with that belief. It’s also a story of social change, of old family traditions breaking down, and how the past continues to shape the present.

Michael is the author of five novels in the Charles Holborne series. He studied law at Kings College, London University and was called to the Bar in 1978. He worked primarily in the field of criminal law until the late 1990s, when he focused his practice on clinical negligence. He began writing in the 1980s and resumed it when he retired from legal practice.

The Charles Holborne series is getting better with each successive novel, and it began with an excellent one. The Lighterman reaches into recent history and tells a story that is simply riveting.

Related:

My review of The Brief by Simon Michael.

My review of An Honest Man by Simon Michael. 

"An Honest Man" by Simon Michael

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harles Holborne is approaching desperation. He’s getting no legal cases at chambers, except where he can tag along with junior barristers. He’s behind on his rent and overdrawn at the bank. He survived being charged with the death of his wife (The Brief) but it seems he’s become untouchable. And then Sally, the clerk from his former chambers falls into his life, and what had been a dearth of work becomes a flood.

The big cases is defending an elderly attorney accused of conspiring with criminals in a diamond heist. The attorney is known for close connections to various criminal enterprises, but the evidence looks planted. Charles takes the case on.

In the meantime, his father becomes ill and appears to have had a small stroke. Charles has been estranged from his family; in college, he turned his back on his Jewish heritage and changed his name. His mother is still unhappy with him.

Simon Michael

An Honest Man is the second in the Charles Holborne Legal Thriller series by British author Simon Michaels. Set in 1960s London, it’s a time of the Profumo / Christine Keeler scandal bringing down a government, of when criminal gangs were almost out of control, and of when there were almost as many crooked as honest police officers. It’s a top-notch story, with an account of a trial that makes the book almost impossible to put down. Michael draws upon his extensive experience in and knowledge of criminal law, and he knows how to tell a riveting story.

Michael is the author of five novels in the Charles Holborne series. He studied law at Kings College, London University and was called to the Bar in 1978. He worked primarily in the field of criminal law until the late 1990s, when he focused his practice on clinical negligence. He began writing in the 1980s and resumed it when he retired from legal practice.

An Honest Man is an outstanding legal drama story, and Michael manages to keep several mysteries and story threads going simultaneously. The conflicted Jewish-by-heritage attorney will not be bought and will not be compromised, and Michael knows exactly how to play that in a criminal and often dangerous world.

Related:

My review of The Brief by Simon Michael.

"The Brief" by Simon Michael

I’ve been looking for another good British detective, and, by golly, I found one. 

Meet Charles Holborne, originally born as Charles Horowitz. It’s 1960s London, and Holborne is a member of chambers in the Temple. Much to the dismay of his fellow attorneys, he practices criminal law almost exclusively. In that line of work, you meet a lot of villains. And you come to discover that not all villains are hoodlum types. Some of them, in fact, have university degrees. And law degrees.

Holborne was born in the East End of London, the one of a furrier. His family is observant Jewish. He was disowned when he married a non-Jewish girl, Henrietta, the daughter of a viscount he met at Cambridge. He hasn’t seen his family in more than a decade. He still loves his wife, but their marriage is unraveling. She’s having affairs, including with some of Holborne’s colleagues in chambers.  He’s been faithful, but he’s concluding a divorce may be in the offing.

And then his wife is found murdered, her throat slit. And Charles has been fitted up as the No. 1 suspect, with enough evidence to be overwhelming.

Simon Michael

The Brief by British author Simon Michael is the first of the Charles Holborne mysteries. And it’s a gem. The pages crackle with action, surprises, twists, and turns. Holborne is an attorney who knows the criminal scene so well that he knows exactly what he has to do to achieve justice – this time for himself. He;s also not adverse to using his fists when he has to.

Simon is the author of five novels in the Charles Holborne Legal Thriller Series, of which The Brief is the first. He studied law at Kings College, London University and was called to the Bar in 1978. He worked primarily in the field of criminal law until the late 1990s, when he focused his practice on clinical negligence. He began writing in the 1980s and resumed it when he retired from legal practice.

The Brief is a great read and a fully enjoyable and satisfying mystery. And there are four more ready to read.