Double Jeopardy

Whose side is the Law - and detective Kerry Lake in particular - on? Scout Pethor is a small-time villain. But is he a murderer? The British justice system doesn’t think so - it acquitted Scout and his friend Matthew Gain of the race-related murder of Angela Sabat, a black American girl. But Angela’s mother, a journalist on the New Yorker magazine, doesn’t agree. She comes to England to visit the scene of the crime and confront the possible perpetrators. Still, you can’t be charged twice for the same crime - can you? So there shouldn’t be anything for Kerry Lake to worry about. But the post-trial inquiry, with its wide-ranging powers, suggests that policeman Vic Othen, Lake’s adulterous lover, might have been involved. How come he was at the scene of the crime so soon? And why is he withholding the names of his informants? Powerfully addressing the issues that arose in the Stephen Lawrence trial in the UK, with its racial overtones and concerns about police corruption, Double Jeopardy also draws parallels with the equally surprising not-guilty verdict in the O. J. Simpson case.