Word: paled
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...Pale Kings and Princes...
Local author Robert B. Parker turns to a popular subject in his 14th Spenser novel, the just-released Pale Kings and Princes. A reporter is shot to death and castrated in the process of doing an investigative report on a major cocaine plant in Wheaton, Mass. When Spenser tries to retrace the reporter's steps, he finds himself running into a brick wall--the town's code of silence...
However, as in most Spenser novels, there is also an emotional denouement. In Pale Kings it involves how Caroline Rogers, the wife of the police chief, handles both the loss of her husband and her son Brett, who just happened to be under Esteva's employ...
ALTHOUGH PARKER has shunned current events in his books with few exceptions, Pale Kings and Princes is tied to the present, making a drug ring its subject. Still, instead of self-righteous preaching, Parker skillfully steers clear and delivers a hard-nosed mystery story with all of the Spenserian tactics: annoyance, poking around, and old-fashioned surveillance...
...judge, who must be a qualified lawyer, plus no fewer than five jurors -- normally all officers, unless an enlisted defendant requests otherwise. The prosecutor and defense counsel must also be lawyers. But critics say the entire proceeding is conducted in the shadow of command influence. "All the paper guarantees pale compared to the weight of lots of brass," says Washington Attorney Gene Fidell, a specialist in military cases. Stories abound of unit commanders pressuring trial authorities to produce guilty verdicts and heavy sentences. In fact, the superior officer convening an Article 32 proceeding can order a court-martial even...