Pleading Guilty by Paul Genney (Dedalus Books) (1/2) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill

(1/2), (2/2).

On the face of it, Henry Wallace, barrister in Hull's Whitebait Chambers, has it all. A well paying job and a comfortable life, but when solicitor's runner, Pauline Dawson, enters his life, everything changes. Overcome with the pressures of a changing work place and his growing lust, Wallace starts to overheat. Feeling guilty and angry, his relationship with Pauline falters and moves out of his control. The news his wife is seriously ill forces him to reconsider. Although a serious book, there's no doubting Genney is a writer with a satirical eye for dark humour. The manner in which the UK's legal system is manipulated by the legal professionals, often for their own ends is laid bare through a string of Wallace's cases.

From the unprepared defence barrister to the clueless prosecutor and disinterested judge, nobody escapes censor. Whether he uses irrepressible fraudsters or a man acquitted of paedophilia charges, the book is never less than eye opening and thought provoking. The flawed nature of the court system is at the heart of the book, and it's a system Wallace understands the rules of, spending his days dealing with people in awe of his status; people, who in their ignorance, thank him for his efforts, even if he knows he's achieved nothing at all, sometimes even manipulating them into believing he's served them well.

When his wife is thrown into the care of the medical world, Wallace finds himself in the same difficult position as his clients, the situation spiralling out of his control.

Unable to control or make sense of it, he has no choice but to trust the professionals, who deep down he knows can be no different to him and his colleagues. Pleading Guilty is a fantastically realised debut novel, which is both moving and amusing in equal measure. Whether looking at the traumatic impact of serious illness, or the consequences of a serious criminal trial, it always deals engagingly with the issues it tackles. In Henry Wallace, Genney has created a character that is both likeable and dislikeable in equal measure, but one that you're left wanting to know more about. It's this skill that marks Genney down as an author to be reckoned with.

Continued .... Next Page (2/2)

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