This novel begins by the dreaded ring of a telephone around two a.m. Kingsland Gordon, who is a young attorney, is awakened by his friend Robert Stevens, who is a district attorney. He is instructed to get David Penner, who shares an apartment with both him and Robert, and get to Robert's office right away. What they soon find out is that David's future-to-be father-in-law has been murdered in his own home. And so begins William Cahn's murder mystery that takes place in the 1950's a short time after the three men first met in college and went on to make a career for themselves—except for David, who seems to struggle to find what he wants to do with his life, even though he is fond of money and women.
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Throughout the novel, the reader is led to believe that David has reason to murder his fiancée's father while David begs Kingsland to represent him. Kingsland doesn't feel adept at taking on such a personal high-profile case, especially since the victim was an important, reputable man with a successful business. Kingsland also is concerned since he is falling in love with David's fiancée, Georgette, and believes that David isn't right for her, especially since Kingsland sees how David cheats on Georgette with other women and one woman in particular who claims that David forced her to have sex with him.
We also learn information about the victim's past during World War II and how he helped people escape the Nazis, how he met a woman who helped him get well after a serious injury and married her. This subplot is a device to make the reader wonder if one of the people in the victim's past was responsible for his murder, which may or may not be a red herring to this story.
Throughout the whole story David doesn't help himself, leaving Kingsland to believe that his friend just may be guilty of murder while Robert wants to wrap things up quickly for his own professional purpose. It is tearing Kingsland apart until toward the end when he discovers clues that blow the case out of the water, one that will ruin the friendship that the three men, who referred to themselves as the Three Musketeers, had for so many years. Cahn does a great job with the courtroom scenes, which makes sense since he was a Long Island district attorney during the same time period that this novel takes place.
Best part of story, including ending:
I enjoyed the court scenes since I felt like I was right there.
Best scene in story:
The penultimate court scene. It was suspenseful and offered a surprise.
Opinion about the main character:
I liked that his character grew throughout the novel. He started out as weak and unsure of himself and ended up feeling confident.
