Novel's Hero Placed on Spot

in Hot Trial

Reviewed by Wes Lawrence

ACT OF ANGER. By Bart Spicer. (Atheneum. $5.95. 505 pp.)

There is nothing written into the law of an unnamed possibly nonexistent

and southwestern state making homicide justifiable as defense against a homosexual attack. Whether a jury will follow the law or adopt the attitude that a young man should have as much right as a young woman to defend his virtue is a question that provides some of the suspense in this courtroom drama.

Other elements of suspense are provided by the strange behavior of the defendant, a Mexican youth, and the question of his own sexual integrity, by political maneuvering, by the ruthless efforts of a millionaire to protect the family name, and by the machinations of a personable goon.

All this combines to test the strength of character and the abilities of the unwilling attorney for the defense, Benson Kellogg who, as you can guess, is the novel's hero.

Bart Spicer has made an entertaining story of it. He has handled homosexuality with as much taste as the subject allows. He has, so far as I could detect-and I have attended a good many trials-made his courtroom action conform to judicial rules.

I would have found it possible to enjoy the novel as much if I had not had to watch its characters push every elevator button, light every cigaret, dial every number-I like to use my imagination a bit in fiction. And I would perhaps have enjoyed the novel more if I had not been haunted by the feeling that it was an effort to produce another "Anatomy of a Murder."