Christopher A. Darden
Author of In Contempt
About the Author
Christopher Darden lives in Los Angeles, California. (Bowker Author Biography) Christopher Darden won international recognition as an assistant prosecutor on the O. J. Simpson criminal trial. His memoir In Contempt was a #1 New York Times bestseller and will become a major motion picture. (Bowker show more Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Christopher A. Darden
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1956-04-07
- Gender
- male
- Education
- San Jose State University
Hastings College (JD) - Occupations
- lawyer
professor - Organizations
- California State University, Los Angeles
Southwestern Law School - Awards and honors
- New York Times bestseller
- Nationality
- USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
For a period of my life, I stopped by a bar regularly on my way home. It was the bar and grill then inside the Pontiac Silverdome: The Main Event. During that time, I showed to watch the "Trial of the Century" with other patrons and discuss Ito's side bars, Marcia Clark, Johnnie Cochran, O.J. Simpson, etc. I read Triumph of Justice: Closing the Book on the Simpson Saga on the civil case, but I think this is the first I have read of an insider during the criminal trial. It feels like legal show more memoir with biography attached since Darden treats us to something like 140 pages of his life before we start to learn the details of what he feels contempt for. Among the reasons he feels contempt for the outcome is the large amount of evidence, not all of which could have been planted, tainted, faked or whatever:
While the trail dragged on for so long, I never considered how hard it was on the overloaded, stressed, public servants waging the peoples' case. Much of that is here about the lack of sleep, isolation, frustration, money problems, etc. Of course money was flowing to and compromising a lot of would-be testifiers while the defense team orchestrated the glove scene, made the case about racism instead of murder, and buttered Judge Ito's ego. In one of the most telling bits of exasperation, Darden recalls a moment of decision late in the proceeding on whether to move for Ito's recusal:
At Simpson's estate, O.J.'s blood was in his driveway and foyer, while Goldman's blood was on the glove alongside his house, and O.J.'s and Nicole's blood was on the socks in his bedroom. The blood was spattered on the socks-nineteen separate blood spots right around the ankles, where blood would likely splash as Simpson hacked at the victims and then walked through the pools of their blood. There were also blood smears at the tops of the socks, where he'd pulled them off his feet. The chance that the blood was someone else's besides Nicole's? One in 21 billion. Ron's? One in 41 billion. Pretty significant figures when there are only 5.5 billion people in the world.
In Simpson's Bronco, Nicole's blood was mixed with O.J.'s on the carpet. Goldman's blood was on the con- sole, and a mixture of the blood of all three was else- where on the console.
Tests were done at two different labs. Contamination was impossible. And in all this testing, no other blood was found. In these lakes of blood, there were identifiable traces of only three people: Ron, Nicole, and O.J. Simpson.
While the trail dragged on for so long, I never considered how hard it was on the overloaded, stressed, public servants waging the peoples' case. Much of that is here about the lack of sleep, isolation, frustration, money problems, etc. Of course money was flowing to and compromising a lot of would-be testifiers while the defense team orchestrated the glove scene, made the case about racism instead of murder, and buttered Judge Ito's ego. In one of the most telling bits of exasperation, Darden recalls a moment of decision late in the proceeding on whether to move for Ito's recusal:
To be honest, I wasn't interested in getting rid of him. The trial had dragged on too long already and, at some level, there were more important things than winning this case at all costs.show less
When I started this book, I thought it was about the OJ Simpson trial, Simpson on trial for murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend and good-deed-doer Ronald Goldman. And it was ... but it wasn't. It was so much more. Darden takes us on his path through his early life to the point where he got serious about Law School. Then on to understand his strong career in the Los Angeles Districty Attorney's office.
I have been fascinated by the OJ Simpson trial since I found and show more watched the entire trial, chronological and uncut, including the Preliminary hearing on the YouTube Channel OJ Trial Uncut. I was a working person when the trial originally aired so I chose to not watch it as I didn't want to see any if I couldn't see it all. Thanks to the YouTube channel I have been able to watch it, in all it's "glory", at my own pace.
I really enjoyed Darden's perspective. From a reluctant writer to a moving tale of triumph, tragedy and, ultimately, betrayal of Darden's great love ... the law. show less
I have been fascinated by the OJ Simpson trial since I found and show more watched the entire trial, chronological and uncut, including the Preliminary hearing on the YouTube Channel OJ Trial Uncut. I was a working person when the trial originally aired so I chose to not watch it as I didn't want to see any if I couldn't see it all. Thanks to the YouTube channel I have been able to watch it, in all it's "glory", at my own pace.
I really enjoyed Darden's perspective. From a reluctant writer to a moving tale of triumph, tragedy and, ultimately, betrayal of Darden's great love ... the law. show less
Books written by celebrities seem to be on every shelf of the bookstore lately. Just about all the members of the original Star Trek cast have their names on the cover of a science fiction novel, whether they actually wrote them or not. Hillary Clinton has signed an $8 million contract with Simon & Schuster for her story, with a history as a best-selling author already behind her. And Christopher Darden, erstwhile prosecutor of O.J. Simpson, has apparently decided that writing courtroom show more mysteries is just the thing for his post-legal career.
Fortunately, Darden had the good sense to team up with a strong journeyman mystery writer: Dick Lochte, author of the Leo Bloodworth novels, Sleeping Dog and Laughing Dog, and the Terry Manion novels, Blue Bayou and The Neon Smile, each one of them better than the one before. And the team-up works, sort of; despite the fact that the mystery itself can be guessed by the veteran mystery reader in the first 50 pages, despite the fact that the writing is often execrable, this book keeps one turning the pages.
Nikki Hill is an attorney with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, making her second appearance in a Darden/Lochte novel (the first was The Trials of Nikki Hill). This time around, she is assigned to assist a more senior, and duller, attorney in prosecuting Randy Bingham, a rich young wastrel with poetic aspirations who is accused of killing his girlfriend. Her boyfriend is homicide detective Virgil Sykes, a man determined to clear his partner of charges that he murdered a young woman. Both of them befriend Adam, the young son of the girlfriend Bingham is supposed to have killed, and Adam becomes deeply enmeshed in both of the cases occupying his new friends.
The trial dialogue is competently written, if unexciting; this isn’t a mystery that has its heart in the courtroom. It is therefore all the more disappointing that the dialogue concerning the politics in the district attorney’s office is so sinister it’s often laughable (“’Right,’ Dana said sarcastically, jerking the door open. ‘Remember, my enemy’s friend is my enemy’”), and that the sex scenes sound as if they belong in a romance novel (“A tremor of excitement electrified her body”). The bad guys sound as if they walked into the novel from Central Casting (“’He’s never offed a bitch,’ Jay Jay added. ‘He just, you know, messes ‘em up a little’”), as does the sexist police officer (“’Oh, mama!’ McNeil exclaimed, checking out the corpse. ‘This is my favorite kind of lady. No sass. Low maintenance’”). Overall, the writing sometimes sounds like the authors are participating in the Bulwer-Lytton contest (“His beloved’s lifeless flesh had not yet cooled, but he was beginning to worry about his own wretched hide”).
Why, then, does this book hold the reader’s interest? It would be easy to say simply that the pace is fast, turning this into the sort of popcorn reading that’s just right for a quiet winter weekend when the reader wants only to be entertained, not to think. But what really does it is that the three main characters are so well-drawn that one wants to keep reading just to find out what happens to them. Nikki would be fun to have a good gossip about men with, to talk to about what it’s like to be a professional woman who loves her work but wants a family, to dish the dirt on office politics. Virgil works hard, thinks hard, and loves hard. Adam sounds like a fascinating kid, a ten-year-old millionaire who is a genius with electronics. These characters have a complexity that the lesser characters in the novel belie, a life to them that makes them real. Together, they make reading this novel feel like a handful of hours spent with new friends.
Originally published in The Drood Review of Mystery, Volume 21, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2001) at 5-6. show less
Fortunately, Darden had the good sense to team up with a strong journeyman mystery writer: Dick Lochte, author of the Leo Bloodworth novels, Sleeping Dog and Laughing Dog, and the Terry Manion novels, Blue Bayou and The Neon Smile, each one of them better than the one before. And the team-up works, sort of; despite the fact that the mystery itself can be guessed by the veteran mystery reader in the first 50 pages, despite the fact that the writing is often execrable, this book keeps one turning the pages.
Nikki Hill is an attorney with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, making her second appearance in a Darden/Lochte novel (the first was The Trials of Nikki Hill). This time around, she is assigned to assist a more senior, and duller, attorney in prosecuting Randy Bingham, a rich young wastrel with poetic aspirations who is accused of killing his girlfriend. Her boyfriend is homicide detective Virgil Sykes, a man determined to clear his partner of charges that he murdered a young woman. Both of them befriend Adam, the young son of the girlfriend Bingham is supposed to have killed, and Adam becomes deeply enmeshed in both of the cases occupying his new friends.
The trial dialogue is competently written, if unexciting; this isn’t a mystery that has its heart in the courtroom. It is therefore all the more disappointing that the dialogue concerning the politics in the district attorney’s office is so sinister it’s often laughable (“’Right,’ Dana said sarcastically, jerking the door open. ‘Remember, my enemy’s friend is my enemy’”), and that the sex scenes sound as if they belong in a romance novel (“A tremor of excitement electrified her body”). The bad guys sound as if they walked into the novel from Central Casting (“’He’s never offed a bitch,’ Jay Jay added. ‘He just, you know, messes ‘em up a little’”), as does the sexist police officer (“’Oh, mama!’ McNeil exclaimed, checking out the corpse. ‘This is my favorite kind of lady. No sass. Low maintenance’”). Overall, the writing sometimes sounds like the authors are participating in the Bulwer-Lytton contest (“His beloved’s lifeless flesh had not yet cooled, but he was beginning to worry about his own wretched hide”).
Why, then, does this book hold the reader’s interest? It would be easy to say simply that the pace is fast, turning this into the sort of popcorn reading that’s just right for a quiet winter weekend when the reader wants only to be entertained, not to think. But what really does it is that the three main characters are so well-drawn that one wants to keep reading just to find out what happens to them. Nikki would be fun to have a good gossip about men with, to talk to about what it’s like to be a professional woman who loves her work but wants a family, to dish the dirt on office politics. Virgil works hard, thinks hard, and loves hard. Adam sounds like a fascinating kid, a ten-year-old millionaire who is a genius with electronics. These characters have a complexity that the lesser characters in the novel belie, a life to them that makes them real. Together, they make reading this novel feel like a handful of hours spent with new friends.
Originally published in The Drood Review of Mystery, Volume 21, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2001) at 5-6. show less
To Jacque
Enjoy L.A. Justice!
Christopher Darden
4/9/02
Dick Lochte
4/9/02
Enjoy L.A. Justice!
Christopher Darden
4/9/02
Dick Lochte
4/9/02
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- 5
- Members
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- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
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- ISBNs
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