Time's Witness

Plain and simple, -Time’s Witness- is a romance. Not a bodice ripper romance, more of a politico-smalltown ripper. A liberal southern (cast against type) police chief plays more than footsie with the soon-to-be governor’s wife; his head detective has reeled in an ex-firebrand red, helping her become a comfortable middle class state legislator (but fighting for leftie causes); one cop courts another and they do the baby first marriage; and the next door neighbor has the woohoos for the police chief whenever possible. That’s a romance, even though the book’s first half plays with being a police procedural and the second, a courtroom drama
The supporting cast: racism, Klan, militias, the power elite, politics, and blacks in North show more Carolina. The stereotypes: the Jewish smart lawyer, the ambitious prosecutor, the black pimp, the killer on death row trying for a last minute reprieve, the schoolboy-looking priest. But even with all this, the book moves along smartly through its 500 plus pages. You can see why Malone was such a hit writing soap operas. This could be one hot miniseries. show less

The cover quoted booklist saying that this was as resonant as To Kill a Mockingbird. Well, nothing can live up to that expectation. However, this is a damned fine mystery, with great, fully fleshed characters, quirky but not cutesy. It has lovely sentences, some great images, and it rolls along. It's 540 pages long and none of them drag, I stayed up past 2 am reading it till the words blurred before my eyes. I really liked Cuddy and his world and enjoyed spending time with him. This is part of a series, which I did not know when I bought it, but you pick up pretty quickly. I will definitely read the next one.

Simply wonderful. I was genuinely sorry to see it end, but the ending was so satisfying it was worth it. Just a very rich, realistic satisfying meal of a book about human relationships, political corruption, class and race, and Southern culture. It may be that the only thing Harper Lee has on Michael Malone is that she manages to pack all of that into a couple hundred pages. But no doubt Malone is her spiritual descendant.

This is a very disappointing detective novel by Malone, and smacks of a poor, or non-existent, editing job. There are far too many late-60's stock figures here (the black radical(s), the Marxist professor, the rumpled, avuncular defense attourney, the communist union organizer) who basically exist to give speeches on capital punishment, et. al.
Since I enjoyed the first and third in this series (although First Lady has an unforgivable flaw in the disgustingly graphic murder at the end), this is really too bad. I give it two stars due to the very touching description of the relationship between the protagonist police chief and his long time, lost-then found-then lost again love. Too bad he abandons the development of this in the next show more book. Will there be a fourth, Michael?
Only to be read if you're committed to reading First Lady and loved Uncivil Seasons. show less

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