How to Try a Murder

How To Try A Murder (by Michael Kurland) is a lightning-quick overview of general courtroom conventions and the like. You got yer elements of th’ crime, yer arrest/indictment, yer trial preparations, and so on and so forth, on through to the verdict. Along the way you get general procedural info, neat anecdotal facts and historical tidbits, and a fictional story that’s supposed to help make things more clear. Also provided are excerpts from official court papers of famous trials (e.g., Timothy McVeigh, Menendez brothers, etc.). Its interesting, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. It’s mostly nothing you wouldn’t get from watching Law&Order or Court TV (I’m assuming) or reading crime fiction (as long as said fiction involves more than vigilante justice). It’s only about 150 pages, and—like I said—a very quick read. I’m not going to disrecommend it, since it was mildly interesting and might be something you’d like to read, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a you-gotta-run-out-and-buy-it-right-now sort of book.