It is increasingly difficult to determine Steve Martini's motives for writing. Undue Influence and Compelling Evidence both contain sideswipes at the social origins of much that leads to the central events of those novels, but in The Judge there is a sustained attack on the very fabric of law and its enforcement in Capital City. The judge may be innocent of the crime for which he is arraigned, but his lack of innocence in a broader context is what has made him vulnerable. The city's finest must surely be disconcerted to see themselves stained by corruption charges, which bring the judge into the dock; and even the DA and his minions are portrayed here as just as culpable as anyone else. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the presiding judge at Acosta's trial is incorruptible - he is an out-of-towner with few if any political waters to chum. Another splendid, often humorous, direct, worrying, highly readable novel from a writer who, until, The Attorney, could not fail to impress.