The Love That Kills - Softcover

Levitsky, Ronald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451403746 ISBN 13: 9780451403742

Publisher: Berkley, 1993

Synopsis

Northern civil rights attorney Nate Rosen arrives in Virginia to defend a militant racist whose gun was found near the recently murdered body of a Vietnamese prostitute. Reprint.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Though Levitsky's debut novel offers no thrilling plot twists, his likable characters and unobtrusive voice make this an enjoyable and often provocative read. Jimmy Wilkes is a Southern lawyer who specializes in environmental issues in his hometown of Musket Shoals, Va. His boss and old family friend, Edgar Simpson, asks him to prosecute Edison Basehart, accused of killing a young Vietnamese woman who lived in a neighborhood that has become an enclave for Asian refugees. Wilkes is reluctant, but Simpson convinces him to take what is apparently an open-and-shut case--Basehart is a member of Guardians of an Undefiled Nation (G.U.N.) and is widely known for his hatred of all ethnic groups. Improbably, Nate Rosen, a civil rights attorney for the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution, is assisting in Basehart's defense; for while Rosen despises Basehart's fascist views, he believes the accused man is innocent. Although the two lawyers are ostensibly on opposite sides of the case, they are soon working together, allied by a shared commitment to justice, to clear Basehart and punish the guilty party. Along the way, Levitsky raises interesting questions about how fanatics can abuse liberty in the name of a putative higher good. Detective Book Club selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A first novel that soberly, without fanfare or gimmickry, tells the story of Edison Basehart, the militant white supremacist arrested for killing Vietnamese immigrant Hguyen Thi Nhi, in quiet Musket Shoals, Virginia; Jimmy Wilkes, the young prosecutor assigned by his aging patron Edgar Simpson to get a fast conviction; and Nate Rosen, the attorney from the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution who's been sent to assist in the defense of the virulently anti- Semitic Basehart. The ingredients are familiar--Nate stirs up trouble with local rednecks and politicos reaching as high as State Senator Dick Dickerson and his troglodyte son, gets involved with the victim's drugged-out sister Nguyen Thi Trac, and strikes up a wary friendship with Jimmy Wilkes, who worries that he lacks the killer instinct that Simpson's successor needs. But, here, the ingredients are blended by a master's hand; the matter-of-fact bigots of Musket Shoals are treated with compassion and respect, and the clumsy goodness of Jimmy and Nate is improbably affecting. Don't miss this one. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0451403746
• ISBN 13: 9780451403742
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 304