Sentence Adjourned

Forget Grisham, Mortimer and the rest. Bring on Paul Genney, the former dentist and potato merchant, turned barrister, whose second novel Sentence Adjourned is now out. Henry Wallace, a barrister, flits between Old Bailey terrorist trials and lucrative civil actions with an ease that would terrify the Bar Mutual. But it is the detail that will delight the practitioner. The book should be strapped to every barrister's practising certificate. Alex Wade in The Times' Best Legal Books of the Year This is the second novel by Paul Genney, a criminal lawyer based in Hull. His first work, Pleading Guilty, was going to be a hard act to follow, second novels are always the most perilous for writers, defining whether you are a one-hit wonder or here to stay.
I am pleased to report that, on the strength of this novel, Paul Genney is very much a fixture in the writing world. The merits of the first novel are carried into this one, authority, borne of knowing the subject inside out, a dry and irresistible sense of humour and that primaeval instinct of being able to tell a good story.
The narrative is always vital;once again, barrister Henry Wallace takes on the legal world as his cases hit the big time, terrorist cases merge seamlessly with the complex civil action - not necessarily good for your insurance cover, but making for compelling reading. There are touches of A Tale of Two Cities, as Wallace relies heavily on his brilliant pupil Jas to keep up, but as always it is the recognisable insights which will delight his lawyer readership, from the CPS needing to make telephone calls before a decision can be made to the mysteries of 'fixing cases administratively'. Genney once again has provided us with a jewel in the legal fiction crown. John Cooper in Criminal Bar Quarterly