Blind Justice by Anne Perry

You heard the phrase 'Justice is Blind' right? That's supposed to mean that no matter what your status in life, Justice will only focus on the facts and whether you're guilty or not. Of course, in real life, who you are is going to impact how the jury/judge sees you.

In Blind Justice, Oliver Rathbone is a judge that is presiding over a controversial court case. He's certain that the defendant is guilty, but it seems as though he's going to get away. And then, he realises that he can influence the case - and he does so. The rest of the novel is how he is arrested for being biased, and how his friends Hester and Monk have to try and clear his name.

What I found interesting were the characters. Oliver seems to hold a torch for Hester, who is in love with Monk (and vice versa). In fact, I only realised that this was part of a mystery series (starring Monk) when I looked at the Goodreads page - I would have thought that either Oliver or Hester was the protagonist of this book. Still, all three characters were well-written, and even though there were references to the past that I didn't understand, I wasn't totally lost when it came to character relationships either.

As for the mystery aspect, well, I didn't think that there was much of a mystery. I mean, there is a murder and there is a solution to the murder, but it didn't seem to be the priority of the book. The book seemed to be more about whether we should encourage justice to go on the path we think is right or to let it take its natural course (even if that means a guilty man may go free). It was an interesting moral dilemma, so even though the mystery was lacking, I didn't mind at all.

I found this to be an interesting book. It didn't seem like a normal mystery - I thought it was historical fiction, but I really did like the characters and I'd like to go back to read more of this series.

Disclaimer: I got a free galley of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.