A Scandal of the Particular

by Steve Hamilton

Overview

Vivid and intense, Hamilton's dark debut adeptly articulates the challenges and complexities of love and violence. Attorney Hyman Kazan is at his lowest point in life: with a struggling legal career and a failed relationship, Kazan is trying to find solace in alcohol. But when the body of a young man is found in downtown Vancouver, a link between the victim and Kazan's girlfriend's new lover, Judge Smith, soon comes to surface. As Kazan begins to look into Smith's role in the murder, sinister secrets come to surface, threatening to destroy whatever is left of Kazan's life. The narrative shuffles between sudden viewpoint shifts and flashbacks in the past, and the story becomes deeply disturbing as Kazan begins to dig deeper into Smith's role in the case. Hamilton's characters are fully fleshed-out, relatable people who will stay with readers: Kazan's portrayal as a tortured soul held fast by rage and trauma makes him an unforgettable hero. Underneath his rough veneer swirls pain and vulnerability. Kazan's inner turmoil plays out against the background of the gloomy skies and mercurial weather of Vancouver and the unraveling of his relationship with Briar. Hamilton skillfully evokes emotions as he delves into love, companionship, relationship upheaval, pain, regret, justice, mortality, and morality. This is a thoughtful, if diffuse, examination of love and relationships; how we drown ourselves more in misery in order to avoid the pain of a heartbreak. Imbued with passion and high-intensity emotion of a couple's volatile relationship, this deeply intimate, emotionally charged tale makes for a winner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781663240057
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/06/2022
Pages:	230
Sales rank:	849,200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Steve Hamilton is a former prosecutor and criminologist. His newest novel, A Scandal of the Particular, presents the unusual scenes behind lawyers and judges and takes the reader inside the arresting forces of the criminal justice system. Behind every crime exists a cast of characters waiting to be discovered and exposed.

Editorial Reviews

2023-01-26
A shocking local murder case revives a down-on-his-luck lawyer’s unraveling career in criminal attorney Hamilton’s debut suspense thriller.

The author draws on his own life’s work as an attorney in this fast-paced debut chronicling the exploits of Canadian lawyer Hyman Kazan. Not a particularly likable nor well-adjusted protagonist, 50-something Kazan has seen better days. His legal career is sputtering, and he and his girlfriend, Briar, are on the rocks. Everything, especially the dreary Vancouver weather, seems to remind him of his shortcomings. The ideal distraction soon presents itself when Simon Westfall, a young drug-abusing migrant, is found dead outside a local clinic. Westfall’s death became immediately suspicious to a clinic nurse who noted that he didn’t have overdose levels of drugs in his system. With an undetermined cause of death, foul play is suspected, and investigators descend on the case. Kazan suspects trial judge Craig Smith, who’s bisexual, because not only was he the last person to see Westfall alive (after a druggy dalliance with him), but he’s also been secretly romancing Briar. A race against time ensues as Kazan feverishly builds his case against his prime suspect, and Smith rushes to conceal evidence and exonerate himself before he jeopardizes his political career. While Kazan’s struggle for meaning is ever present throughout the novel, it’s often punctuated with overwrought prose, as when describing Kazan’s avoidance of a mundane daily existence: “He would never let the easily swallowed opioid of routine dissolve his lost and fractured soul.” Nevertheless, there is also some assured storytelling here; Hamilton effectively weaves past and present together to fill out not only Westfall’s gritty personal history, but also Kazan’s booze-soaked despair, bad luck, and personal and professional demons. Peripheral characters are also well rendered, including Smith, the nefarious judge. As the puzzle pieces of the mystery fall into place, Kazan seems to find his footing as a rejuvenated litigator and a man. Then the author drops an unexpected but plausible ending—one that will likely undermine any previous assumptions about his misunderstood legal-eagle protagonist.

A patchy read but with a twist ending that will dazzle fans of the genre.

Kirkus Reviews