This was a pretty shallow story – with Aaron barely making a dent in a plot that spends much of its time concerned with the two other murders being prosecuted by Vail's office. The events of «Primal» mostly arise as a consequence of «Show»'s focusing on Vail's renewed romance with Jane Venable, the prosecutor in «Primal» and – to complete the reversal of roles here – the defense counsel in one of Vail's homicide cases. (When the hints prove insufficient, Diehl just drops Aaron's name in spots of narrative that have nothing to do with the case). Finding improbably close links between Aaron's handiwork and that of a serial killer who claims two of Aaron's former friends, Vail struggles to tie the murders to a man who's been institutionalized for a decade. Diehl, like Aaron, doesn't know when to leave well-enough alone and, once Aaron returns to the novel, he quickly and unceremoniously spills the beans. Suffice it to say that those looking for a real twist will go hungry (I thought Aaron, Venable and Vail would team up and implicate a high-level Chicago fixture much as they cooked the archbishop in «Primal», or otherwise link the copycat crimes to the other seemingly unrelated ones ala «Hollywood Confidential»). The mystery of Aaron's power to manipulate from beyond the walls of an insane asylum isn't even a mystery (although it might have been to some in 1993, only a couple of years before Netscape's legendary IPO). Instead, «Show» is incredibly fake – everything from the ambitious and merciless ADA's who run Vail's office (as if the Cook County DA's Office existed to prosecute only a few homicides) to the pseudo-hardboiled dialog of his cops («look, we ain't lookin' to cause the lady no grief.») Even the setting seems unreal – Diehl's Chicago lacks the verisimilitude of the fictional Kindle County of the Turow novels. That «Show» is supposed to be a mystery is undermined by how little detail Diehl gives us to work with. (After the climax, Vail's team turns up details that explains everything – ala «Scooby Doo». What really kills me is that this is supposed to be a legal thriller and, despite pumping us up to the legal talent available, very little of «Show» takes place in a courtroom, and Diehl's ADA's talk about «maxing out» the people they prosecute without doing much to prove they could prosecute a shoplift. (The cops, on the other hand, are dismissed as inept apes, who parade the prisoners they collar like war-trophies, without much regard for their possible innocence.) Had he taken the defendant in one of «Show"'s subplots to trial, Diehl could have substantiated his opinions about his prosecutors and his cops in one swoop, but that's obviously more effort than its worth.
Aaron Stampler, a country bumpkin from rural Kentucky with a genius IQ was serving as an altar boy to Chicago archbishop Rushman. The exalted cleric was actually a closet pedophile and Stampler brutally slashed him to death as well as two other altar boys. Vail defended him and using a strategy based on Stampler having a multiple personality disorder succeeded in saving his life. Stampler was remanded to a mental facility for the criminally insane where he has been incarcerated for 10 years. When several murders crop up with the same M.O. as the Rushman murder the fur really starts to fly in the D.A.'s office.
It seems as if Stampler is somehow involved in this latest rash of killings but how can he be if he is interred? Vail with the help of his Wild Bunch and Jane Venable, former asst. D.A. and prosecutor of the Stampler case and now corporate lawyer commence investigating these horrific crimes.
Diehl does a masterful job in expertly picking up his Primal Fear story 10 years down the road. Show of Evil is a fast moving, hard hitting and worthy sequel.