Prisoner at the Bar

Robert Bladen is a young lawyer with a bright career ahead of him… 

Bladen is madly in love with Katherine Curson. The problem is, she is already married to someone else…

Out of loyalty to her husband, Katherine always refuses any physical relationship.

Unable to deny their feelings for each other, they meet up and park in a secluded area.

On one such night, movement in the bushes causes Bladen to investigate.

Returning to his car, he declares nothing was there and forgets the incident.

The next morning, a body is found nearby.

Police are appealing for witnesses, or anyone that was in the area to come forward.

Bladen is bound by a sense of justice to notify them of his whereabouts, against the pleas of Katherine.

Keeping his companion anonymous, he advises the police that he was in the area that night.

Little does he know, this admission will spiral into a web of circumstantial evidence that will end not only his career, but his freedom.

Can Bladen refute any of the evidence? His footprints? His tyre tracks?

After believing in the justice system for so long, Bladen must find a way to cheat it in order to prove his innocence.

But will Katherine stand by him whilst he fights a legal system he has served for years?

Only one thing is certain. Bladen will keep fighting for the truth…

Prisoner at the Bar is a powerfully emotional novel, with drama, suspense and twists from a master of the genre.

'A first-rate whodunit turning on the resourcefulness of a country gentleman who exploits the process of the law to delay its action. Author on the top of his legal and social form.' - Francis Goff, The Sunday Telegraph 

‘Roderic Jeffries established a very high reputation for himself in the field of the legal thriller with Exhibit No. Thirteen and Dead Against the Lawyers . Once again he has used a little known quirk of the law, and woven round it an enthralling story of immense intricacy.' - Maurice Richardson, The Observer 

‘The resulting legal intricacies make fascinating reading.' - Hester Makeig, The Spectator 

'First-class, smoothly told, fine court scenes and sketches of lawyers entirely absorbing.' - John Clarke, Evening Standard 

‘The most ingenious of Mr. Jeffries's exercises in legal trickery.' - Julian Symons, The Sunday Times 

'...is for the mystery story connoisseur and particularly the man who can appreciate this ingenious exercise in legal trickery.' - Police World 

Roderic Jeffries was born in London in 1926 and went to sea in 1943. Six years later he left that trade to become a lawyer. He again changed profession to become a writer. Since 1951, he has written over one hundred and sixty novels under his own name and several other pseudonyms. He began his career by writing books featuring his father’s character, Blackshirt, a popular detective whose adventures have appeared in print for many decades. In time Jeffries branched out and began to write a variety of mystery novels under his own name and several pen names, including Peter Alding and Jeffrey Ashford.