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Wrongful Death: A Novel
After serving on the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, railroad lawyer Elliot Stone returns to the U.S. and finds himself embroiled in a medical mystery surrounding the string of apparent murders of terminally ill patients.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 15, 2012
Somewhat disappointingly, very little of the novel takes place in the courtroom contrary to my expectations and the book’s billing as a legal thriller. It certainly provides a glimpse into the legal machinations surrounding a court case and perhaps the lack of courtroom time makes it more realistic.
Kant v Hume; Idealism v Nihilism; categorical imperative v antecedents and consequences. That was the subject of Elliott Stone’s --his name is teased out only gradually--thesis at Harvard. You’ll see the relevance by the end of the book.
Following the death of Kathleen, his wife from cancer (random), Stone immerses himself in international law and agrees to take on war crimes trials in the Balkans. His last case, before the Balkans, is as conservator for Dale Stillwell, a railroad worker (Stone had been a railroad defense attorney for two decades handling and growing rich from railroad crossing accidents (consequences)) who had been badly injured in a yard accident when he sandwiched between two engines during a snowstorm that prevented the engineer of his locomotive from seeing his hand-signals as they rounded a curve into a waiting train that should not have been there. He approves a settlement on behalf of Dale and June (ironically, she was the engineer of the locomotive and married him in a fit of guilt perhaps) for some $12 million.
Stone tells the story of his experiences in the Balkans to June, two years later, who is now in a coma in the hospital after being kicked in the head by Dale (Stone had overheard Dale saying he would kill her; Dale was ostensibly unhappy with the settlement, but had been ruled incompetent because of his injuries by the trial judge, hence Stone's conservator-ship.)
I’ll stop relating any more of the plot. Rest assured that seemingly disparate pieces of story fit together, and by the last third of the book, you’ll have difficulty putting the book down. The scenes where they are trying to track down a substance using a variety of sophisticated methods was very cool. And the method of murder was particularly devious and devastating. "The greatest evil is the evil that can pass for good." and even more unsettling, "Reason in isolation can be dangerous. Reason unrestrained by sympathy." So we are left with a person's own definition of good and why evil must be committed to preserve a self-concept of good. The killer is the epitome of evil in this book.
First rate legal novel that pits Hume and Kant against each other all over again.
Kant v Hume; Idealism v Nihilism; categorical imperative v antecedents and consequences. That was the subject of Elliott Stone’s --his name is teased out only gradually--thesis at Harvard. You’ll see the relevance by the end of the book.
Following the death of Kathleen, his wife from cancer (random), Stone immerses himself in international law and agrees to take on war crimes trials in the Balkans. His last case, before the Balkans, is as conservator for Dale Stillwell, a railroad worker (Stone had been a railroad defense attorney for two decades handling and growing rich from railroad crossing accidents (consequences)) who had been badly injured in a yard accident when he sandwiched between two engines during a snowstorm that prevented the engineer of his locomotive from seeing his hand-signals as they rounded a curve into a waiting train that should not have been there. He approves a settlement on behalf of Dale and June (ironically, she was the engineer of the locomotive and married him in a fit of guilt perhaps) for some $12 million.
Stone tells the story of his experiences in the Balkans to June, two years later, who is now in a coma in the hospital after being kicked in the head by Dale (Stone had overheard Dale saying he would kill her; Dale was ostensibly unhappy with the settlement, but had been ruled incompetent because of his injuries by the trial judge, hence Stone's conservator-ship.)
I’ll stop relating any more of the plot. Rest assured that seemingly disparate pieces of story fit together, and by the last third of the book, you’ll have difficulty putting the book down. The scenes where they are trying to track down a substance using a variety of sophisticated methods was very cool. And the method of murder was particularly devious and devastating. "The greatest evil is the evil that can pass for good." and even more unsettling, "Reason in isolation can be dangerous. Reason unrestrained by sympathy." So we are left with a person's own definition of good and why evil must be committed to preserve a self-concept of good. The killer is the epitome of evil in this book.
First rate legal novel that pits Hume and Kant against each other all over again.
August 28, 2022
Although I almost quit during the second quarter of the book for its slowness, my interest level did pick up again after that. It was a decent courtroom mystery with the message “how can the good do evil?” I truly enjoyed the descriptive writing found the book entertaining overall.
March 16, 2016
This is one of those novels that you can't put down. I think some people might pass it by because it requires closer-than-usual reading for the first ten pages or so but I can say that I have rarely invested my reading time so well.
Wrongful Death is about things as diverse as personal injury law and the Bosnian war-crime tribunals, mother-daughter relationships and forensic pathology. And Kerr pulls it all together with such flair, you can only sit back in amazement and admiration. What is best about this novel, though, is Kerr's absolutely wonderful rendering of three very different women, each so clearly drawn and so distinct from the other that you hear their voices without trying. The next time I hear somebody claiming that men can't write women, I'll hand them this book.
I've read a lot of courtroom novels written by lawyers, and this is easily the best of the bunch. The trial sequence was so tightly constructed and so suspenseful that I found myself hold ing my breath more than once.
Wrongful Death deals with terrible tragedy, human weakness and grief, but it is, in the end, hopeful. It's one of my top ten.
June 24, 2014
This book is really quite excellent, though by a novice writer. I had lost this on my read shelves. The cover looks like a non fiction work and I'd ignored it till now.
June 30, 2023
So this book was phenomenal. I am unsure why others ranked it lower. The plot was solid, and everyone was legitimate when it came to the legal, and medical side of this. Twists were throughout and you got to really understand and embrace the characters. I truly enjoyed this novel!!!
November 4, 2016
This is the first book of Kerr's I've read, and I felt he did a good job of presenting a compelling murder mystery that bridged the worlds of medicine and law. Attorney Elliot Stone was a lawyer whose primary focus was in the railroad industry when he was appointed as a conservator for a man severely injured in a railroad accident who ended up marrying the female engineer of the train that hit him. Once that case wraps up, Stone works in Europe during the breakup of Yugoslavia, prosecuting war crimes, but this past case comes back to the forefront of his work upon returning home, as the wife, June, is now comatose, having endured a brutal beating, and he is appointed her conservator. It seems likely that the husband is behind the assault, but his mental competency is called into question as a result of his own injuries. When June's daughter, from whom she was estranged ever since the marriage, comes to town, she is focused on proving that her stepfather injured her mother. However, the law is against her, as even if he is proven guilty, the money he received from the railroad lawsuit is exempt from any sort of penalty, and as he has been unable to work since his accident, he has no assets that could be taken in order to pay for June's care.
Circumstances change, however, when June dies at the poorly-run nursing home where she was placed due to having no money. Now, her husband's settlement money is vulnerable if it can be proven that he killed her. This leads Stone to open up a whole new investigation because there are many possible killers. Did June die as a direct result of her injuries? Did her husband inflict further damage on her during their court-appointed one-on-one visitation sessions? Did her daughter, who slept in her room every night, end her mother's suffering after learning that her stepfather's money could be touched if June died? Was June's death due to negligence at the nursing home, where 2 other seemingly stable patients died suddenly? Is there a mercy killer at the home who can't stand to see people wasting away in beds for years? Could someone be accepting bribes to kill patients whose care is costing the state a lot of money?
I enjoyed the murder mystery part of the book, but could have done without the constant allusions to Stone's time overseas. The only relevance I could find, other than introducing Stone's love interest, was that June's nursing home reminded him of the conditions reported to have existed at a hospital where the patients were executed en mass at the hands of its corrupt leaders. I almost wish that would have been a separate story, because it didn't really seem to fit in other than to explain what Stone did in between his conservatorships.
Circumstances change, however, when June dies at the poorly-run nursing home where she was placed due to having no money. Now, her husband's settlement money is vulnerable if it can be proven that he killed her. This leads Stone to open up a whole new investigation because there are many possible killers. Did June die as a direct result of her injuries? Did her husband inflict further damage on her during their court-appointed one-on-one visitation sessions? Did her daughter, who slept in her room every night, end her mother's suffering after learning that her stepfather's money could be touched if June died? Was June's death due to negligence at the nursing home, where 2 other seemingly stable patients died suddenly? Is there a mercy killer at the home who can't stand to see people wasting away in beds for years? Could someone be accepting bribes to kill patients whose care is costing the state a lot of money?
I enjoyed the murder mystery part of the book, but could have done without the constant allusions to Stone's time overseas. The only relevance I could find, other than introducing Stone's love interest, was that June's nursing home reminded him of the conditions reported to have existed at a hospital where the patients were executed en mass at the hands of its corrupt leaders. I almost wish that would have been a separate story, because it didn't really seem to fit in other than to explain what Stone did in between his conservatorships.
March 22, 2008
In the same tradition as "The Verdict", this beautifully written legal thriller has a twist & twisted ending that will stay with you long after you close the book. This was Kerr's first novel after being a published poet. His style of writing draws out his characters, but keeps this book moving with a captivating plot. In this genre, his books are a real stand out. I keep checking to see if he's written another novel!
February 7, 2012
Surprisingly excellent.
July 21, 2014
First time reading this author and was impressed.Easy to read and good characters.
October 16, 2021
6/10 - A smart and entertaining legal thriller
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews