The Barabbas Choice

Everyone accepts that the law can on occasion be an ass, but there's something endearing about an ass; it may be stubborn and stupid, but it's still soft and cuddly and it's on our side, isn't it? The Barabbas Choice, although self-standing as a novel, brings together again Inspector Stranaghan, Robert Snoddy and Dr Greenfield, who in the earlier novel Headless became embroiled in intrigues revealing the inadequacies of modern leadership. Here a new set of characters share the stage and the focus shifts to the relationship of the law with justice and the psychological and philosophical problems that arise out of a refusal to accept the primacy of the former when it is deemed to fail in its duty towards the latter. The taboo on people taking the law into their own hands is explored, and as the story unfolds the perennial question of ends and means gets turned on its head.