Brian Kennedy's Improved Lies: Mickey Spillane Couldn't Have Done Better

Mystery Runs 600 Pages And You Can't Turn Them Fast Enough

January 25, 2012
By: Dave Rogers

(The book: Improved Lies, by Brian Melville Kennedy, 620 pages, published by Durban House, Dallas, TX, 2007. Available on Amazon.com and on Kindle.)

Ken Edwards' legal career is going nowhere fast until murder steps up to the tee at Lake Pointe, giving Edwards the defense of the "Country Clubber" and his shot at redemption. The brutal murder of Amanda Armbruster, the darling of the country club set, has ignited a firestorm of public passion. Even before a jury can be seated, a lynch mob is forming for Amanda's husband, Ted. But Edwards' dream case is rapidly becoming a nightmare, with every rock he turns over hiding something dark, slimy, and full of teeth. Unless Edwards can decode Amanda's final enigma, "The cats went to the dogs," he and his client will be thrown to the wolves.

In our ongoing review of the literature of the tri-city area, and books written by local authors, "Improved Lies" challenges the best in entertainment and, should we say, thrills.

Everything Ken Follett advises should be in a thriller has been captured by retired Bay City trial lawyer Brian Kennedy in his golfing-legal James Bond like tour de force.

The author states: "In this, my first novel, I tried to weave golf,romance,poker, and human frailty into the tapestry of a courtroom thriller. My fervent hope is that the reader will enjoy the mystery and the milieu in which it is set."

This 2007 book was serialized by The Bay City Times, if you will remember, and as a whole package it is more palpable and achieves the flow an addicted reader such as myself seeks.

The Follett-like dramatic scenes flash off the pages from the beginning, with lawyer Ken fighting a nightmare induced by Jack Daniels employed in an effort to wash away the breakup of a 20-year romance.

The dramatic moments with legal implications begin marching across the pages even as Ken hears the spot his friend and client Ted Armbruster is in: his wife is lying in blood, bashed with a mashie or a niblick at the country club and detective Bliss there already building his case.

Hardly any book, except perhaps Spillane or Bond, could start any faster. The great thing about this book is you can tell the author actually knew characters who had lived it, maybe not in one cohesive piece, but over a career. And the characters are as real as the Southern Comfort breath of next door neighbor Old Billy.

Familiar names will help local readers relate: Wayne State law school, automtive machine company, Lumberman's State Bank, the Red Wings, Northwood, the Chevy plant. All and more set a mid-Michigan stage for a legal tale based around murder.

Experts tell me character development is the key to grabbing a reader; Water for Elephants is a good example, and so is Improved Lies in that regard.

Amanda "was a leggy raven-haired colleen of milky complexion. She carried her 5-10 height with an athletic grace and smile that teased: 'I know something you don't' Her green eyes bubbled in mischief."

The tale races along for 16 chapters and it would be unfair to relate the details except to mention that there is a twist at the end -- what else did you expect?

So read the book; you can get it online at the Bay City Times archives. If you are local, there will be many familiar scenes, characters and other aspects. That's part of the charm for us in mid-Michigan that awaits in "Improved Lies."

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