Ace of Pentacles

Jeffrey Canton is Programming Co-ordinator at the Toronto Public
Library.

A lively courtroom drama is the focus of this, Williams’s first novel.
Arnold Smeltzer, professional thief extraordinaire, is on trial for his
alleged participation in a six-million-dollar robbery. Smeltzer admits
that he was involved in planning the robbery, but claims he backed out
before the heist took place. His defence attorney, a small-town lawyer
named Cyril Bagshaw, is just one member of this novel’s colorful cast
of courtroom characters, which also includes a wily fortuneteller, a
bumbling prosecuting attorney, and the judge (in his presiding
pomposity), Mr. Justice Jeremy Milton. Bagshaw’s defence is
complicated when he falls in love with Angela Newton, the prosecutor’s
assistant—and creates a drama as intriguing as the case for the
defence.

Williams’s novel is extremely readable and carefully paced, and it
cleverly uses a tarot-card motif as a framework. Unfortunately, however,
it loses momentum long before the jury has brought in its verdict.
Riddled with clichés and juvenile bathroom humor, it tries to balance a
love story with a courtroom drama, but Williams just can’t pull it
off.