In its compelling portrayal of racial injustice committed by
police officers, Blood on Their Hands is unlike other legal thrillers in its
uncannily perfect timing as the country is torn asunder by police brutality
against blacks. Further, it is one of a kind in its introduction of a
controversial legal conundrum.
But that enigma – whether an attorney who witnesses a police
beating may defend the victim – takes a back seat to the novel’s portrayal of
racial animosity. Though prevalent throughout our country’s history, events
over a period of just a few weeks in winter-spring 2020, most notably the
police strangulation of a Minneapolis man, saw it rise to a fever pitch not
felt since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
Police brutality toward blacks is the salient, and
altogether timely, problem addressed in Blood on Their Hands by both the legal system and the book’s
characters in the racial attitudes they harbor. The novel explores these
bigoted feelings in depth, echoing via dramatization the poignant lyrics in the
song You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught
in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 hit Broadway musical South Pacific.
As to the legal aspect, attorneys consulted by the author
offered varying opinions as to the rare circumstance encountered by the
protagonists within the book’s pages.
Hiram Garbuncle
is a veteran criminal defense attorney—as well as a racist, miserly alcoholic.
His life revolves around hoarding money, following sports, pursuing sex,
drinking—and the prideful practice of law.
Alec Monceau is a black man working in suburban West Palm Beach, Florida, to
support his daughter’s family in Trinidad. It is 2008, and his car carries
an Obama bumper sticker. This political endorsement leads to a superfluous
traffic stop and a brutal beating by police.
It goes against Garbuncle’s grain to defend a black man from a charge of
violently resisting arrest, but he is so confident of winning that he is
negligent in the jury selection, and a mistrial occurs. He then discovers
incriminating evidence on the two cops, and his new challenge becomes how to
keep himself and his client alive pending a new trial.
Blood
on Their Hands borrows themes from the movies Gran Torino and My
Cousin Vinnie. It is a tale replete with both pathos and humor. Steeped in
suspense, action, intrigue, violent episodes and yes, a bit of titillating sex,
all these elements are leavened by a tragic love affair. Perhaps most
important, it is a story of redemption.
Author's Bio
Bob Brink is a
journalist who worked with the Palm Beach
Post, The Associated Press in Chicago, Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, Tampa Tribune, Joliet Herald-News, and Palm Beach Media Group
(magazines). His byline has been on thousands of news stories, features, and
entertainment reviews. He’s been an author and freelance writer for several
years.
He has won
numerous writing accolades and several awards, including three for Palm Beach Illustrated, which won the
Best Written Magazine award from the Florida Magazine Association after he
became copy chief and writer.
Blood on Their Hands is Brink’s second crime novel, following Murder in Palm Beach The Homicide That Never
Died¸ an Amazon best-seller for 15 weeks. His previous books were the
coming-of-age novel Breaking Out, The Way It Was: Short Stories and Tall Tales,
and A Tale of Two Continents, a
ghost-written memoir.
Besides dabbling in short-story
writing over the years, he immersed himself in learning to play the clarinet
and tenor saxophone. He performed many years with an estimable 65-piece
community symphonic band, and played a few professional big band gigs.
A product of Michigan and Iowa,
he has a bachelor’s degree in English and German from Drake University in Des
Moines, and studied journalism in graduate school at the University of Iowa.
