Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501160012
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By Jeffrey Abramson. Basic Books. $25.
Subtitled "The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy," this is a text-book presentation of the history of the jury system dating back to old English law. Mr. Abramson - a professor of politics at Brandeis University, former law clerk in the California Supreme Court and an assistant district attorney in Massachusetts - cites many legal quotes and presents arguments for and against the jury system as presented by our forefathers and as it exists now. Unfortunately, you can ask 47 lawyers what they think of the system and you're probably get 57 different opinions.
Abramson gets into the statistics of cases going to jury (you'll be surprised) and the effect of pretrial publicity. He discusses the issue of "impartiality" which, of course, is prominent in the O.J. Simpson case. This really is a primer on the jury system, and when Abramson discusses it historically, it is very good. When he deviates into the impact of the jury on a trial, he sometimes misses the point. Further, when he discusses jury selection, he makes a common mistake. Despite the delay of a trial, the only way to select a jury is to look each prospective juror in the eye as he or she answers each and every question. I do not believe that the judge has the right to refuse to allow an attorney to ask all the questions. The idea of racial or ethnic stereotypes is also hogwash. However, this is an excellent book for those who want to know more about the jury system.
- JOSEPH WILLIAMS
Karma.
By Mitchell Smith. Dutton. $22.95.
This is a rattling good thriller, the best of the season, one that portrays evil at its most hideous - and the absolute necessity for resisting it promptly and violently if any semblance of civilization is to be preserved.
Evan Scott is a successful New York architect, not quite at the top of his firm, but close enough. One day, while he's inspecting a new building, a beautiful girl, a worker on the project, plummets past him to her death. This is almost all he sees, but the people responsible for the girl's death will not believe him, and begin efforts leading from intimidation to murder to make sure of his silence. The methods of intimidation are what make the book so frightening - the mysterious delivery of a tiny golden charm, a bell that does not ring, because silence, after all, is golden; the kidnapping of two little boys, and their return, unharmed. The only difference is that each has been covered with makeup so that he resembles a girl.
When the violence approaches Evan's family, he strikes back with the unlikely aid of Dass, an Indian whose New York newsstand has been burned. The bloodletting is extensive and imaginative. There are a couple of breaks in continuity and common sense, however, and Evan, despite being sliced and diced himself, emerges as too much of a superhero.
Still, this is an extremely well written book with characters of depth and dimension, particularly the villains.
- ROBERT HILLDRUP
LOST MOON.
By Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger. Houghton Mifflin. $22.95
Great mystery writers - Dick Francis for one - put ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances and allow the reader to watch them perform. Great techno-thriller writers - Tom Clancy for one - put ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances and allow the reader to watch them perform. Great story tellers - Pat Conroy for one - put ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances and allow the reader to watch them perform.
"Lost Moon," the story of the accident-scarred Apollo 13 moonshot, combines all the genres to describe the backstairs conversations and actions of many people unknown outside NASA, until now.
Written by Jim Lovell, commander and lunar module pilot on the mission, "Lost Moon" takes the reader from the exhilaration of the launch, the boredom of the first two days of he flight, the gut-wrenching feeling when an oxygen tank explodes, and the famous message "Hey, we got a problem here" to describe what, at first blush, seemed to be the last wills and testaments for three astronauts. Lovell uses the third person to describe the actions in space and on Earth to try to milk four days of oxygen from a two-day supply. He describes the faceless engineers working in labs all around the country trying to devise methods and equipment to stretch the finite resources of Apollo 13. He describes the emotional roller coaster ridden by the crew while awaiting instructions and predictions from the ground.
Obviously Apollo 13 landed, the fixes and improvisations worked. How they worked and who made them work are the heros and the seductions of this book.
- LARRY SHIELD
Joseph Williams works with the jury system.
Robert Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.
Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.
by CNB