Mason Hunt, the protagonist of Martin Clark's powerful novel, "The Legal Limit," is one of those smart country boys who make it, despite the odds. Reared by a mother
floodlight struggling to make ends meet with factory work, he lands a job as the commonwealth's attorney in his Virginia hometown, Stuart.
Meanwhile, his deadbeat brother, Gates,
www.floodlightdesign.com is serving a 44-year sentence for drug dealing, a fact that the arclight locals don't hold against Mason.
But Mason and his brother share a secret. While Mason was in law school, he watched his brother kill a man who was vying for Gates' girlfriend. Together, they covered up the crime.
Nearly two decades later, the wayward brother is tired of sitting in jail. After all, a brother that well-connected in the legal system could surely pull a few strings and get Gates released early. Otherwise, he might have to mention his brother's role in the murder and subsequent cover-up.
Maybe even reverse their roles and claim Mason was the shooter.
Mason, a widower raising his only child alone,
floodlight is understandably unwilling to be coerced into a blackmailing scheme or to go to prison as a wrongfully convicted murderer.
"I will kill Gates Hunt before I let my daughter lose another parent," he tells himself.
But once the cops begin investigating his brother's kiis fm claim, Mason might be facing more than he can handle.
At this point, halfway through the book, "The Legal Limit" becomes an edge-of-your-seat legal thriller. Before that, though, it meanders along at a country-lane pace, documenting Mason's rise as a lawyer and his subsequent return to rural life.
It's an enjoyable journey. Clark, a circuit judge who lives in Stuart, knows his novel's turf intimately, and his ear for dialogue and attention to the details of his rural setting are superb.
Once the investigation begins, though, the pace quickens, and the nature imagery turns predatory.
When two investigators first interview Mason about his brother's claim, Clark writes that their patient questioning "reminded Mason of the summer toads at the farm, always biding their time beneath a floodlight or brightened transom, vigilant brown lumps watching . . . watching . . . watching . . . watching, waiting for a gnat or moth to dip too deep and become food for a sticky, darting tongue."
The issues at play in "The Legal Limit" are weighty -- among them, the bond (and limit) of fraternal loyalty and the subtle distinction between justice and the law. Clark manages to make
www.floodlight.co.uk them emotionally compelling, rather than programmatic -- no mean feat.
But that shift to nail-biting thriller is a rush, and readers watch the dark knight online may find themselves taking sides on the philosophical issues only after they have finished the book.
Unlike a lot of summer books, "The Legal Limit"
floodlight isn't a guilty pleasure. Take it to the beach and turn the pages breathlessly. Then mull over its deeper themes on that long ride home.
