Charlie Walden is the Resident Judge of the Bermondsey Crown Court, where he had hoped for a quiet life, but has found it to be anything but. With the job of balancing the needs of prosecutors, judges, 'Grey Smoothies', the humourless grey-suited civil servants, and the overall needs of a Crown Court he soon finds himself struggling to keep the peace and his own delightful humour. Charlie is confronted by a number of topical issues he hadn't anticipated; invited to join the Court of Appeal he finds himself faced with a case involving the 'confusion' of one of his team. In another a teacher must be penalised for defacing a statue, a huge and mysterious cat comes to the rescue in yet another case, and so the harassed Judge must pick his way through this minefield of exasperating cases in order to keep everyone from the cannabis lobby to the anti-slave traders happy with his judgements. No hope of a quiet life for Charlie then, but, as ever, he deals with the issues of the day with satirical good humour, insight and wit. Another entertaining and insightful look at the British court system and the long-awaited sole Walden novel.
Author
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base. Peter Murphy's first novel John the Revelator was nominated for the 2011 IMPAC literary award, shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Book Awards and the Kerry Group Fiction prize. His second novel, Shall We Gather at the River, is published as The River and Enoch O’Reilly in the US. Peter’s journalism has been published in Rolling Stone, the Irish Times, the Sunday Business Post, The Guardian and Hot Press magazine. He has contributed liner notes to the remastered edition of the Anthology of American Folk Music and is also a regular guest on RTE’s The Works. His short story The Blacklight Ballroom was included in the Faber anthology New Irish Short Stories, edited by Joseph O’Connor. Another story, The Gloamen Man, was featured in the New Island anthology Silver Threads of Hope, edited by Sinead Gleeson.
