To Account for Murder

Whitbeck, chief judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals, uses the real murder of state senator Warren G. Hooper in 1945 as the inspiration for a muddled fictional look at the rampant corruption that characterized the state from the 1920s until Hooper's murder spurred a successful reform movement. From his death bed in 1996, Charles Cahill relates to his only child his multiple roles in the death of state senator Harry Maynard and the conspiracy trials that followed. Cahill returns to Lansing after being invalided out of the army in 1945 and joins with special prosecutor Hubbell Street to try state treasurer Wade Fleming and two henchmen for conspiracy to murder Maynard, a man Cahill has told readers that he shot. Whitbeck handles the courtroom scenes and maneuvering well enough, but Street, who aspires to be governor, and Cahill are no better than the men they are trying to replace. Those with an interest in Michigan governmental history will be most rewarded. (Nov.)