Rules of the Knife Fight

by Walter Walker

It began as an idea for a sexy gift of pleasure; it ended as murder.
On their wedding night, Barbara Cochrane’s reluctant new husband, Bobby O’Berry, disappeared in a Massachusetts lake. Months later, an unidentified body turned up in San Francisco. A veteran private detective, Owen Carr (his card proclaims “Never a Day Off Since 1949”), thinks he’s found a connection between these events and the prestigious lawyer Leigh Rossville, his attractive wife Cathy and their salacious and suspicious activities late one Saturday evening. Trial lawyer (and friend) Chris Cage holds Rossville’s only chance in court to avoid a major scandal and criminal charges. Barbara Cochrane’s gangster brothers are also at the trial. They want to see justice served....

Genres: Fiction

465 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

About the author

This is the disambiguation profile for otherwise unseparated authors publishing as Walter Walker

Reviews

[Elizabeth Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I slammed Walker's 1985 novel The Two-Dude Defense, but this one is definitely recommended. Walker's structure is unique -- five sections each narrated by a separate character, all of whom are involved in some way with a strange killing that results in a civil trial for wrongful death. Readers hear from the victim, the investigator, the defense counsel, the killer, and the presiding judge, and their overlapping stories leave it to the reader to decide what really happened. A reviewer can't say much without giving up information that might be spoilers for readers. The setting here is the San Francisco Bay area of California, and the time in the mid-1980s. Walker provides an interesting cast of characters, including several whom readers can root for, and an unusual structure that ultimately works very well. Highly recommended.