#BookReview :: Judgment of Murder by C.S. Challinor

It’s a dark day for Scottish barrister Rex Graves when he learns that Lord Gordon Murgatroyd has passed away. Referred to as “Judge Murder” by Rex’s colleagues, the famously severe judge supposedly died of natural causes—but his daughter Phoebe thinks otherwise.

Wanting to honor the man who’d always been uncharacteristically kind to him, Rex thinks it would be a good idea to follow up on Phoebe’s suspicions . . . until a meeting with a suspect leaves him drugged and beaten within an inch of his life. With a target on his back and a child abduction case gripping the region, Rex fears that the judge’s death won’t be an isolated incident. 


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This book popped up on my goodreads homepage. It looked like an interesting but somewhat laid back sorta story and so I picked up a review copy from Netgalley. The blurb sounded interesting but I had no idea about what to expect from it. As such it was a pleasant surprise.

Gordon Murgatroyd had been a strict judge who was often dubbed as "Judge Murder" and as such not many people were touched by his death. But Gordon had been uncharacteristically nice to Rex. When his daughter voiced her doubts about her father’s seemingly natural death, Rex felt obligated to look into the matter. What he didn’t expect was to get mixed up in something so dangerous that would threaten his life as well. With another case of child abduction taking up some of his attention, will the barrister be able to keep his wits and outsmart the perpetrator?

The story at the beginning seemed straightforward enough with Rex having to deal with two separate issues. But as the storyline progresses, new information is disclosed and the menace surrounding each case increases. That is when we see a different picture altogether. I liked the character of Rex quite a bit. He is unconventional is some ways and very likeable in every way. The plot is not very complicated and as such most of the ‘mystery’ turned out to be pretty predictable. However, the story has been narrated in a way to keep the readers engaged.

I wish I had known that this book was a part of a series though. I would have liked to read them in order to be able to see how the character was built up from the beginning. In any case this book can be read as a standalone.

Review Copy received from NetGalley