‘Nothing But the Truth’ by Robyn Gigl

Published by Verve,
31 October 2024.  
ISBN: 978-0-85730-887-0 (PB)

Erin McCabe has come a long way since she won her first big case; but even as an experienced defence lawyer whose skills are in demand, she still finds herself battling with a politicized and corrupt American legal system. In the fourth book in Robyn Gigl’s powerful series the corruption lies at the heart of the case – but even Robyn doesn’t realize how deep it goes until it’s almost too late.

She is called on to defend Jon Mazer, a policeman accused of killing a journalist, and at first it looks like an open and shut case. But open and shut cases are something of a speciality with Erin; in the face of apparently unassailable evidence, the defendant says he is innocent and she believes him. The journalist, who is black, was working on an exposé of a malicious and prejudiced faction in the police force. The accused man, who is gay and himself a victim of the faction, was one of his sources, but the DNA and fingerprint evidence appear to be watertight.

The prosecution erects hurdle after hurdle as Erin sets out to gather information to build her case. To make things even more complicated, her partner Duane Swisher is black, and Erin is transgender, making them both prime targets for the prejudice, which is wide-ranging as well as deep-rooted.

The battle to build a case for the defence is played out against a background of personal issues which prove almost as complicated. Erin is about to be married to Mark, whose family are refusing to come to terms with her transgender status. His sister Molly is his only supportive relation; she is in a same-sex relationship, and she and her partner are keen to have a child. This triggers a longing in Erin, whose own family have only recently begun to accept her as a woman – all except her mother, who was positive about it from the start.

It would be easy for the sexual politics to take centre stage and overshadow the main event, which of course is Erin and Duane’s determined quest for justice for Jon Mazer. But Robyn Gigl is too skilled a storyteller to allow that to happen; she uses both strands to build a tale which illustrates the flaws which mar the American legal system – and does it through the medium of characters it’s easy to believe in.

The ending carries a hint that the series may be drawing to a close, but I can only hope this isn’t Robyn Gigl’s intention. She has created an engaging cast of regular characters and displays a neat hand with the good and bad guys who people each story. I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping for more of Erin and Duane’s cases.     
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Robyn Gigl is an attorney who has been honoured by the ACLU-NJ for her work with the transgender community. A frequent lecturer on diversity issues, she lives in New Jersey, where she continues to practice law by day, and work on her next Erin McCabe novel by night.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.