From Publishers Weekly
After a promising beginning, Bernhardt's latest thriller starring Oklahoma attorney Ben Kincaid, seen last in Deadly Justice , drifts into formulaic TV-movie scripting that slights its serious subject. When a young Vietnamese refugee is brutally murdered near Silver Springs, Ark., all the evidence points to Donald Vick, a member of the white-supremacist group Anglo-Saxon Patrol (ASP). When no one will defend Vick because of his politics, Kincaid, who is in Arkansas on vacation and believes that even those with heinous views deserve proper representation, agrees to take the case. For his pains, he is attacked by hooligans, beaten by a deputy sheriff, ostracized by the entire town and obliged to accept bodyguards supplied by the ASP Grand Dragon. This liberal's nightmare is simplistically portrayed: no opposing principals in the cast attempt to understand Kincaid's position, so there is no discussion of the issue at the story's heart and little narrative tension. Instead, the characters are people with permanently unchangeable opinions who mostly yell at each other. Even the story's fiery climax and the late twists of its plot have a set-piece quality that diminishes the novel's impact. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
While on vacation near Silver Springs, Arkansas, Tulsa lawyer Ben Kincaid ( Deadly Justice , Ballantine. 1993.) hastily agrees to defend a young white supremacist accused of murdering a local Vietnamese immigrant. Although time is of the essence, town hostilities and prejudices make Ben's life difficult--even with the aid of his own "A team" (male secretary, private gumshoe, and on-leave detective). Flawed plot, shallow characters, and lack of finesse, however, do not make a winning combination.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Bernhardt introduces unusual characters and story lines in his latest murder mystery. Ben Kincaid, a "big-city" lawyer from Tulsa on vacation in Alabama, gets roped into taking on a case that is more than he bargained for. A white-supremacy group, the Anglo-Saxon Patrol (ASP), has invaded the small town of Silver Springs to drive away the "gooks"--Vietnamese living in a local camp. The citizens are disturbed by the ASP's presence, and tensions mount even further when a Vietnamese boy is discovered dead. Kincaid defends the accused ASP member-- "but even hatemongering fascists deserve representation." The town doesn't take to Kincaid, and his investigation nearly falls flat. Things change, however, when Belinda Hamilton--a lawyer and founder of Hatewatch, which has set up an office to help deter ASP's actions--finally agrees to help Kincaid get access to otherwise unattainable information. The twists in the plot and the final courtroom scene make this an exciting-enough story and even make up for the sometimes gratuitous and often preachy PC dialogue. Mary Frances Wilkens


From Kirkus Reviews
No rest for Tulsa lawyer Ben Kincaid: his vacation in Arkansas ends with a bang when he's dragooned into defending a white supremacist for the murder of a Vietnamese immigrant--and finds that he's stepped into a minefield of racial hatred. At first the accused, Donald Vick, refuses to say a word to Ben except to insist that he plead him guilty. Circumstances strongly suggest that he's right: as a fourth-generation member of the Anglo- Saxon Patrol (ASP), the defendant was sworn to protect Aryan America from ``gooks'' of whatever stripe--and he'd been in a well-observed fistfight with the victim, Tommy Vuong, in a bar only a few hours before somebody shot Vuong with an ASP crossbow and burned a cross over his dying body. The townsfolk, revolted by ASP's race-baiting, close ranks against Vick so completely that Ben can't even find a place to spend the night; to his disgust he's followed everywhere by an ASP bodyguard ordered to protect him from attacks by the very people who ought to be his natural allies--from brass-knuckled anti- ASP teenager Garth Amick to Belinda Hamilton, founder of Hatewatch. Nor can Ben do much for his client in the courtroom even after he's able to persuade him to change his plea: witness after witness nails the lid down tighter, and when Vick takes the stand, he reveals that under the ASP warpaint, he's just another confused, sensitive man of the 90's--and then takes the fifth as soon as the cross-examination heats up. Is there any hope for such a hopeless defense? Not until after a rash of shootings and firebombings--by equally misguided firebrands from the Vietnamese community and the ASP--and a climactic church blaze that adds every clich‚ of the male gothic to the courtroom intrigue. Ben's well-meaning hardcover debut (after three paperback outings) is broad and crude: a pre-Grisham novel in a world of infinitely shrewder post-Grisham competitors. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
"BERNHARDT IS A MASTER LEGAL TOUR GUIDE, taking the reader through the labyrinth of the judicial system of America's heartland."
--Mostly Murder
A young Vietnamese immigrant is brutally slaughtered by a crossbow. The prime suspect is a ruthless member of a white supremacy group.
When attorney Ben Kincaid reluctantly agrees to confer with the presumed murderer, he encounters a chilling certainty: an innocent man has been cast as a scapegoat. To rebalance the scales of justice, Ben chooses to represent the accused man--thereby placing both attorney and client at the explosive center of a community torn apart by xenophobia, racism, and violence.
But the real fireworks will go off in court--in an incendiary murder trial with more twists than a dustbowl tornado (.
"REWARDS ITS READERS WITH A GENUINELY SURPRISE ENDING WHILE ALSO RAISING SERIOUS ISSUES."
--The Orlando Sentinel



From the Inside Flap
"BERNHARDT IS A MASTER LEGAL TOUR GUIDE, taking the reader through the labyrinth of the judicial system of America's heartland."
--Mostly Murder
A young Vietnamese immigrant is brutally slaughtered by a crossbow. The prime suspect is a ruthless member of a white supremacy group.
When attorney Ben Kincaid reluctantly agrees to confer with the presumed murderer, he encounters a chilling certainty: an innocent man has been cast as a scapegoat. To rebalance the scales of justice, Ben chooses to represent the accused man--thereby placing both attorney and client at the explosive center of a community torn apart by xenophobia, racism, and violence.
But the real fireworks will go off in court--in an incendiary murder trial with more twists than a dustbowl tornado (.
"REWARDS ITS READERS WITH A GENUINELY SURPRISE ENDING WHILE ALSO RAISING SERIOUS ISSUES."
--The Orlando Sentinel

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ben Kincaid returns for a new tale of adventure, detection, and courtroom pyrotechnics: Perfect Justice. While vacationing in the Ouachita Mountains, Ben becomes embroiled in volatile small-town politics and a case of homicide fueled by hate. The crime: the brutal murder by a crossbow of a young Vietnamese immigrant. The defendant: Donald Vick, a remorseless youth and active member of the Anglo Saxon Patrol(ASP), a local white supremacy group. Though revolted by the killing, Ben believes in Donald Vick's right to a fair trial and agrees to represent him. Soon he also begins to believe in Vick's innocence. Yet before the trial begins, his client suddenly - and adamantly - decides to plead guilty. As members of the Vietnamese community plot to fight fire with fire, Ben frantically searches for the truth. When he infiltrates an isolated ASP camp in the woods, he discovers that what appears to be just another monstrous hate crime could be something else entirely... Perfect Justice is a whirlwind novel of suspense that addresses some of the most controversial issues of our time. William Bernhardt paints a riveting portrait of a town torn apart by xenophobia, racism, and violence. With mounting suspense, his anatomy of an incendiary courtroom trial culminates in serpentine twists and sizzling revelations.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

After a promising beginning, Bernhardt's latest thriller starring Oklahoma attorney Ben Kincaid, seen last in Deadly Justice , drifts into formulaic TV-movie scripting that slights its serious subject. When a young Vietnamese refugee is brutally murdered near Silver Springs, Ark., all the evidence points to Donald Vick, a member of the white-supremacist group Anglo-Saxon Patrol (ASP). When no one will defend Vick because of his politics, Kincaid, who is in Arkansas on vacation and believes that even those with heinous views deserve proper representation, agrees to take the case. For his pains, he is attacked by hooligans, beaten by a deputy sheriff, ostracized by the entire town and obliged to accept bodyguards supplied by the ASP Grand Dragon. This liberal's nightmare is simplistically portrayed: no opposing principals in the cast attempt to understand Kincaid's position, so there is no discussion of the issue at the story's heart and little narrative tension. Instead, the characters are people with permanently unchangeable opinions who mostly yell at each other. Even the story's fiery climax and the late twists of its plot have a set-piece quality that diminishes the novel's impact. (Jan.)

Library Journal

This addition to Bernhardt's ``Justice'' series (e.g., Blind Justice , Ballantine, 1992) is the author's hardcover debut. Attorney Ben Kincaid finds himself defending a white supremacist charged with murder. While Kincaid abhors the bigot's politics, he's convinced the man is innocent.

BookList - Mary Frances Wilkens