At one time or another during his lengthy career, the Lord Rawlinson of Ewell held every important legal office in the British government except that of Lord Chancellor, including serving as Solicitor-General under Harold Macmillan and acting as Attorney-General in Edward Heath’s cabinet.   Of interest to mystery fans is that fact that he also wrote a number of crime novels, most of them in the rather obvious category of Legal Thriller.   Here is a briefly annotated list:


Columbia Syndicate.  Chapmans, hc, 1991.      [Edmund Hamilton]
    Chapmans, pb, 1992.

    When Edmund Hamilton is sent to Colombia to locate a drug and arms syndicate and an assassin,  he becomes enmeshed in a plot by the Home Secretary against Sir Godfrey Burne, the head of MI6.  Described as a “James Bond” thriller.



Hatred and Contempt.  Chapmans, hc, 1992.      [Crime Writers Association’s Rumpole award.]
    Orion, pb, December 1993.

    From the cover of the paperback: “A gripping courtroom drama – a duel between two desperate men.”  Setting: contemporary London.



His Brother’s Keeper.  Chapmans, hc, 1993.    [Edmund Hamilton; Jonathan Wentworth Playfire]
    Orion, pb, December 1994.

    Edmund Hamilton is the target of a female assassin, a petty thief named Nadine who was hired by an IRA agent who has raped her.





Indictment for Murder.  Chapmans, hc, 1994.     [Jonathan Wentworth Playfire]
    Orion, pb, November 1995.
    St. Martin’s, hc, US, February 2000.

    Jonathan Wentworth Playfair, Knight of the Realm and one-time Judge of the High Court, is required to stand trial for the murder of a bedridden friend at whose side he fought the Germans in North Africa.












The Caverel Claim.  Constable & Robinson, hc, 1998.
    St. Martin’s, hc, US, December 1998.

    When a black and beautiful American stripper arrives in England claiming to be the heir to the title and lands of the 16th Baron of Caverel, an enormous legal battle ensues.














The Richmond Diary.  Constable & Robinson, hc, May 2001.

    After the death of Francis Richmond, a minor academic and an accomplished scandalmonger, the allegations contained in his diary prove to be political dynamite.














A Relic of War.  Constable & Robinson, hc, May 2004.

    When Mordecai Ledbury, aged and crippled, spends a night in a dilapidated old house where his family once lived, a masked intruder is found dead in the morning, shot by a heavy pistol, a relic of Mordecai’s eccentric and reclusive uncle.  Described as a legal cliffhanger.


      

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