The debut novel of Australian author Richard Beasley takes us for a little trip through the rugged world of a big-time legal firm in Sydney. Hell Has Harbour Views is all about surviving as a lawyer, surviving as a person and being able to look yourself in the eye at the end of the day. All through the eyes of young Hugh Walker.

Hugh Walker once worked for a lower rung legal firm who battled for the little people, fighting for their rights and helping the strugglers. He wasn't earning a huge salary but he was comfortable and enjoyed his job. That was 6 years ago. Now he works for the top law firm in the country, Rottman Maughn and Nash (aka Rotten, Mean and Nasty). They're corporate lawyers who litigate on behalf of the large companies against the same small people he used to represent. He despises his job and himself for doing it.

Hugh spends his days chasing down witnesses to get them to sign statements, going to boozy lunches with his corporate clients and putting in long hours on defenses that he doesn't believe in. Meanwhile, his nights are taken up with drinks with the company partners, entertaining a girlfriend he no longer likes and quiet moments reflecting on the way his corporate life has turned out and the mistakes he has allowed himself to make, not to mention the laziness he now displays in not chucking it all in, redeeming his self-respect and going back to the lawyering he could be proud with.

While working late one night he happens to witness something in the firm's boardroom that is going to be the source of the greatest pressure that he will come under while working for Rotten, Mean and Nasty. There is about to be an all out war between some of the company's partners and Hugh is about to find himself slap-bang in the middle of it whether he likes it or not. Perhaps this upheaval could be the chance he needs to get himself out from under the work he hates. Then again, maybe it will ruin him altogether, it all depends on how he plays the delicate game of company politics.

Hell Has Harbour Views is a humorous look at the world of high-flying lawyers poking fun at the injustices the unfeeling lawyers exert on, not only their opponents, but also on their clients. Author Richard Beasley is a former lawyer and seems to take great delight in highlighting the liberties that the employees of Rotten, Mean and Nasty take at the expense of the little people. Stories about scams, usually based on over-billing and long lunches would be hilarious until you realize that their portrayal is all too life-like and the people that they’re taking advantage of are people like me. Sure it’s fiction, but boy it smacks of the truth.

Now, Hell Has Harbour Views is set largely in the day to day running of a large legal firm, and that legal firm is decidedly unscrupulous in many of its dealings, but this is not really a legal thriller. For the majority of the book it reads as the musings, regrets and self-loathing of one of its employees.

Hugh is a nice guy who has gotten himself stuck in a job that is more suited to a corporate shark. He eventually comes up with a solution to his employment dilemma, but it’s a rather long time coming and this is the only real problem I had with the book. What I thought would be a rather simple problem to confront takes Hugh an inordinately long time to sort out. While he deals with things extremely satisfactorily by stories’ end it tends to be a plodding and circuitous route.

I enjoyed the humorous delivery of Richard Beasley, making cynical comment on some of the more mundane aspects of life in a large organization. The pacing could have been a little more lively with the occasional flat spot in the narrative taking some of the punchiness out of the story. On the whole, though, Hell Has Harbour Views is quite an enjoyable story.


Recommended: Yes

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