"Forced Confessions" by John Fairfax

Sometimes you read a mystery novel and are dazzled. Sometimes you read one. and you don’t think you’ll ever be able to look at mystery novels the same again. And sometimes you read a mystery and think this isn’t a mystery, this is a literary work. 

Forced Confessions is the third Will Benson courtroom thriller by John Fairfax. It dazzles, it surpasses most mysteries written today, and it qualified as a literary effort. To read it is to open a literary kachina doll, with mysteries inside mysteries, crimes within crimes, and stories inside stories. And at the end, the reader is left with the realization that evidence does not equal truth, and the law is administered very imperfectly indeed.

 

Will Benson is the barrister who is a convicted murderer. He served 11 years in prison. To be able to have even a very small chance of practicing law, he had to confess to the crime he was accused of. Through two sensational cases, he has gained a fame, and notoriety, that many attorneys might envy. The London legal profession hates him; the current Cabinet Minister for Justice wants to destroy him. 

 

He’s defending a husband and wife in a case in which the husband is accused of killing a Spanish doctor who was having an affair with the wife. The wife is charged as an accessory. Her best friend will testify against them both. There was motive and opportunity, and the husband was seen leaving the crime scene shortly after the victim’s body was found.

 

John Fairfax, aka William Brodrick

Benson is having something of an existential crisis; his mentor, the woman attorney who guided him and encouraged him (and defended him in his own trial) is dying of cancer. His father and brother believe he was guilty of the murder he was convicted of. And his associate Tess de Vere has ignored Benson’s plea and has been investigating the murder he was accused of. And the stories and crimes begin to swirl together and inside each other. Nothing, including the murder 11 years before, is what it seems to be.

 

The result is one outstanding story.

 

John Fairfax is the pen name for British writer William Brodrick, the author of the Father Anselm mysteries. Under the Fairfax name, he’s also published Blind Defence and Forced Confessions. Brodrick was a friar in the Augustine order before he became a barrister and a writer. The Father Anselm mystery A Whispered Name won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award in 2009, and Forced Confessions was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Award in 2020.. Brodrick lives in France. 

 

Forced Confessions is a stunning read, one of the best mysteries I’ve read. Ever.

 

Related:

 

Blind Defence by John Fairfax.

 

Summary Justice by John Fairfax.

 

My review of The Day of the Lie by William Brodrick.

 

My review of Brodrick’s The 6^th Lamentation.

 

My review of The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick.

 

My review of A Whispered Name by William Brodrick.

 

My review of The Discourtesy of Death by William Brodrick.

 

My review of The Silent Ones by William Brodrick.

"Blind Defence" by John Fairfax

Barrister Will Benson is defending a particularly obnoxious client accused of murder. The client is a borderline small-time hoodlum, prone to use his fists, once accused of beating a policeman senseless but inexplicably released and not brought to trial. He’s now accused of killing the young woman he’d lived with for years. She was found hanging by her neck, a blood orange jammed into her mouth. 

Benson has his own deep issues to deal with. Convicted for a murder he said he didn’t commit, and serving 11 years of his sentence, he changed his plea and obtained an early release – and promptly became a barrister, causing no end of consternation in London’s legal and political establishment. An anonymous benefactor has backed him, providing him with funds to obtain his license, set up his practice, and even buy a houseboat, where he lives on one of London’s canals. Benson himself doesn’t know who the benefactor is. 

 

He’s already had one spectacular jury trial, defending someone everyone thought was guilty (Summary Justice). In this current case, even the DNA evidence says his client committed the murder, not to mention motive, opportunity, and how many times the client has lied to police. Benson has to raise the idea of the victim being a possible suicide, at least sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt. 

 

John Fairfax, aka William Brodrick

With the help of his legal solicitor Tess De Vere and his loyal office staff, Benson soon finds himself embroiled in a case with roots in organized crime, police corruption, and his own old demons from prison. And the Cabinet-level minister of Justice is pulling out the stops to destroy him, and Benson doesn’t even know it.

 

Blind Defence (British spelling) by John Fairfax is the second of the Will Benson legal thrillers, It is so engrossing that the reader finds himself on the edge of his seat, holding his breath as he wonders what will happen next. It’s a story in which nothing is ever what it seems to be, with an defending attorney whose fight for his clients is saturated with his own guilt and innocence.

 

John Fairfax is the pen name for British writer William Brodrick, the author of the Father Anselm mysteries. Under the Fairfax name, he’s also published Summary Justice and Forced Confessions. Brodrick was a friar in the Augustine order before he became a barrister and a writer. The Father Anselm mystery A Whispered Name won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award in 2009. Brodrick lives in France. 

 

With Blind Defence, Fairfax has produced a story in which the supposed upholders of law and justice often compromise themselves, villains can emerge from the dark at a moment’s notice, and the ghosts of past crimes return to haunt the living. Including the barrister.