DRAMA IN THE COURTROOM

Southland Times, Issue 23332, 16 October 1937, Page 19

DRAMA IN THE COURTROOM

A Legal Case Book THE JURY RETIRES. By Roland Wild. Robert Hale and Co., London. Price 12/6. Although the author of this interesting book includes a number of rmirder cases in his list of famous trials, he does not rely on macabre or gruesome detail for his dramatic effects. In a remarkable way he is able to reproduce the tension of the courtroom and the moments of surprise and suspense which come with the unfolding of evidence. His introductions are brief and straightforward; there is a legal preciseness in the way he comes quickly to the business of the trial, and allows the witnesses to speak for themselves. The task of presenting vital evidence is not as simple as it may seem to the casual reader. There is need for selection and a judicious emphasis; and it is in avoiding a wearisome detail and in focusing attention on the great moments of a trial that Mr Wild is most successful. The cases under review have all been tried in recent years. Some of them are intensely dramatic; all have been wisely chosen for their range and depth of human appeal. There is a careful analysis of the strange affair of Lieutenant Baillie-Stewart, which Mr Wild gives a significant title “English Dreyfus?”, and which draws from him a single instance of partisan comment. The Dennistoun divorce occupies a long chapter, and opens a view of complex behaviour which may disturb the reader who forgets to remain impartial. A case of literary importance is dealt with in the Gladstone libel action, a strange epilogue to the life of a statesman, and interesting for the way in which the cross-examination of Captain Peter Wright reveals the slender grounds for published statements that attacked the posthumous reputation of a great man. There are also studies of the Jonesco case (strangely connected with the affairs of King Carol of Rumania), the case of the poisoned sandwich, the Rouse mystery, and other episodes in the recent history of crime and legal dispute. Mr Wild avoids conclusions. And in leaving the reader to judge for himself he gives his book a temperateness that will recommend it to the wide public which finds in criminology an excitement of actual experience and a mystery of human motive that need no imaginative exploitation.