["A Matter of Conviction" seems] intended, by both author and publisher, as a serious mainstream novel; and I hate to report that Hunter's commercial and pseudonymous paperbacks, especially those by "Ed McBain," are more satisfactory by any serious standards. The present book starts off well with a blunt account of a teen-gang killing in Harlem; but most of the novel is devoted to the agonizing of Harlem-born assistant D.A. Henry Bell, who must prosecute the case. The coincidences and improbabilities which arise to torment him might be tolerated in soap operas and the subtlety, validity and originality of his social thinking might just about do for that medium. But even the most credulous television audience, trained by now in court procedure, should find the climactic trial scene absurd.

Anthony Boucher, in a review of "A Matter of Conviction," in The New York Times Book Review, June 7, 1959, p...