Orion, London 2002 (first published 1998)

Joseph Finder is an acclaimed American jounalist who also writes fiction. So he most probably has done extensive research before writing this thriller about the military. But as this happens to be the third book about the corrupt American government system I have read in a short time I begin to have second thoughts. Anybody suffers from persecution mania?

Anyway, Finders has found a thrilling, if not necessarily convincing story about a massacre committed by a top secret American unit against innocent civilians in San Salvador in 1985. And Claire Chapman, a famous Harvard law professor  and defence attorney, discovers that her beloved husband Tom has lead a double life and was involved in that same secret unit. Now he has to stand trial in a military court and is accused of ruthlessly killing off 87 civilians. Claire takes it upon herself to defend him. She is continually threatened, almost killed, her career in ruins, but she plods on, helped by Grimes, a black lawyer specialising in military law, and a private detective.

And, like all court stories, this here is really gripping, with turns and twists till the unexpected end.