False Witness

Dias is an English trial lawyer, and his first novel is a lively performance featuring an offbeat atmosphere but an overcrowded plot. On the one hand, this is a courtroom thriller about Tom Fawley, dubiously defending a cripple who writes semi-pornographic trash, acknowledges a sexual interest in teenage girls and is suspected of the ritualistic murder of one of them. It's also a wry, contemporary-London novel about the disaffected Fawley, his unwise amorous involvement with the fascinating prosecutor in the case, his drinking problems, his estrangement from his wife and daughter. Then there is the semi-mystical, dark-blood saga of a cursed family and an evil West Country village where it rains all the time and young girls suffer unspeakable practices. It's doubtful that any writer could have satisfactorily brought all these elements together, and Dias does not succeed. Still, as a narrator, Fawley offers engaging patter and tasty inside legal know-how, and the many and confusing plot strands are eventually tied together in the end, albeit a bit too neatly. (Nov.)