The Magistrate

by Ernest K. Gann

Follows the legal career of the Honorable Julian Hickock, a judge torn by the conflicting laws, overcrowded prisons, and moral conflict of his profession and threatened because of his belief in justice and the integrity of the law

Genres: Fiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1982

About the author

Ernest K Gann was an aviator, author, filmmaker, sailor, fisherman and conservationist.

After earning his pilot license, Gann spent his much of his free time aloft, flying for pleasure. The continuing Great Depression soon cost him his job and he was unable to find another position in the movie business. In search of work, he decided to move his family to California. Gann was able to find odd jobs at Burbank Airport, and also began to write short stories. A friend managed to get him a part-time job as a co-pilot with a local airline company and it was there that he flew his first trips as a professional aviator. In the late 1930s many airlines were hiring as many pilots as they could find; after hearing of these opportunities, Gann and his family returned to New York where he managed to get hired by American Airlines to fly the Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3.

For several years Gann enjoyed flying routes in the northeast for American. In 1942, many U.S. airlines' pilots and aircraft were absorbed into the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces to assist in the War Effort. Gann and many of his co-workers at American volunteered to join the group. He flew DC-3s, Douglas DC-4s and Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transports (the cargo version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber). His wartime trips took him across the North Atlantic to Europe, and then on to Africa, South America, India, and other exotic places. Some of his most harrowing experiences came while flying The Hump airlift across the Himalayas into China. In the years to come Gann's worldwide travels and various adventures would become the inspiration for many of his novels and screenplays.

At the end of World War II, the Air Transport Command released the civilian pilots and aircraft back to their airlines. Gann decided to leave American Airlines in search of new adventures. He was quickly hired as a pilot with a new company called Matson Airlines that was a venture of the Matson steamship line. He flew from the U.S. West Coast across the Pacific to Honolulu. This experience spawned ideas that were developed into one of his best-known works, 'The High and the Mighty.' Matson ultimately soon fell prey to the politically well-connected Pan American Airlines and failed. After a few more short-lived flying jobs, Gann became discouraged with aviation and he turned to writing as a full-time occupation.


Gann's major works include the novel The High and the Mighty and his aviation focused, near-autobiography Fate Is the Hunter. Notes and short stories scribbled down during long layovers on his pioneering trips across the North Atlantic became the source for his first serious fiction novel, Island in the Sky (1944), which was inspired by an actual Arctic rescue mission. It became an immediate best-seller as did Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. In 1978, he published his comprehensive autobiography, entitled A Hostage to Fortune.

Although many of his 21 best-selling novels show Gann’s devotion to aviation, others, including Twilight for the Gods, and Fiddler's Green reflect his love of the sea. His experiences as a fisherman, skipper and sailor, all contributed storylines and depth to his nautical fiction. He later wrote an autobiography of his sailing life called Song of the Sirens.

Gann wrote, or adapted from his books, the stories and screenplays for several movies and television shows. For some of these productions he also served as a consultant and technical adviser during filming. Although it received positive reviews, Gann was displeased with the film version of Fate Is the Hunter, and removed his name from the credits. (He later lamented that this decision cost him a "fortune" in royalties, as the film played repeatedly on television for years afterward.) He wrote the story for the television miniseries Masada, based on 'The Antagonists.'

Reviews

[Mbuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is another forgotten writer, whose books are utterly absorbing, whether they are action thrillers, historical fiction or courtroom drama. Even his non fiction crackles with the thrills of aviation and aviators.

The Magistrate is about a judge whose decisions in the past, and sentences in the future, catch up with him in this flawless narrative. As an honest man who worries whether his decisions conform to justice or only the law, he is aware that only a jury may finally find for or against the defendant, that he is powerless to interfere. As the story develops, Nemesis, in the form of a vicious and very angry woman begins to stalk him. Enemies, the ones he can see and those that he cannot, circle around him. His nearly adult son has an attitude, particularly after his mother's death in a drunk-driving accident. Nor can he, the son, accept the magistrate's girl friend, who is only a few years older than himself. The organised crime baron whose trial is due to come up soon before the judge is busy with evasive and aggressive tactics to derail the process of sentencing.

A good judge? Yes. A humane judge? He thinks he is, but it does not always appear to be, if the people he has sentenced have anything to say or do about it. When, at what point, did the law so overtake him as to intrude itself into his private life and make him a judge of his wife, his children, and everyone about him?

As he substitutes for a colleague, his major criminal case still pending, he comes across petty felonies where the law itself is so lopsided and antiquated that it cannot possibly offer any relief. There is the case of the old lady who has been mugged, but whose attackers go free because she is unable to identify them very clearly. Now the old lady faces a new danger. Or the gun collector who hoards guns simply because the Congress cannot confiscate his right to bear arms. His dream is to possess a nuclear missile if he could build a silo for it, but in the meantime is willing to settle for an intercontinental ballistic missile if only he could afford it.

And then his son and the woman who is stalking the judge come together, and the son is arrested on charges of dealing drugs, his girl-friend's car is bashed up, fortunately when she's not in it, and the magistrate's life spins around him…

This is a truly marvellous combination of action, courtroom thriller, psychological drama and philosophical doubts.

[Wanda B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever read a book that you didn't want it to end? Well this is one of those books!