Private Prosecution

Private Prosecution is the first novel by Australian lawyer, former prosecutor and author, Lisa Ellery. It was meant to be a one-night-stand, although Andrew Deacon, junior prosecutor with Western Australia's DPP was hoping for more with pretty, sexy Lil Constantine. But the next day she was dead.

Lil's influential brother-in-law, Samuel Godfrey SC is the person Drew believes responsible, but the police have no case. When Drew persists, he is given an unambiguous demonstration of the man's power to inflict pain of the physical and reputational kind. Proving Sam Godfrey's guilt initially has to take a back seat to surviving. But not for long.

Before Drew manages to achieve that reckoning he feels is richly deserved, his beloved BMW is torched, he has his nose broken (twice), he tries to convince the police he is not a paedophile, he stays under the radar by sleeping in a rather lurid-looking borrowed car and ditching his smart phone, he learns to use a public library, and he is reduced to finding a dealer to service an inconvenient prescription painkiller addiction, a legacy of being beaten up in a car park.

Drew is a likeable enough character, a little immature (he refers to himself as a spoilt brat), certainly naïve and sometimes careless, but his heart is in the right place, and his strong sense of justice won't allow him to let Lil's death go unanswered. His inner monologue is often darkly funny, as is much of the dialogue: "I handed over a thousand bucks. I was pretty sure that would do the trick. 'Don't bother mentioning that to the police,' I said. 'It'll only complicate things.'"

Ellery's expertise in the Australian legal field is apparent on every page, and her skilfully constructed plot offers twists and surprises right up to the final pages. Fast-paced, funny and clever, Ellery's debut novel is utterly enthralling and more from this author will be eagerly anticipated. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Better Reading Preview and Fremantle Press.