Rough Justice is the first of a new country-noir series centering around handyman ex-con Carl Burns and takes place in a fictional Rose City & its nearby farming communities in Southern Ontario.

Carl Burns is not as front and centre in this first book as was farmer ex-baseball player Virgil Cain in Brad Smith's previous trilogy. There is not as much wily outwitting of corrupt urban types and as much banter. This is offset by having two strong female protagonists in Burns's sister-in-law Frances and his estranged daughter Kate.

There are two major plots here, one involves a sexual abuse case vs. a celebrity defendant (in this case, the ex-Mayor of Rose City) and the other a landfill/dump site scheme to push out farmers and present a toxic threat to the remaining community. It may not mean as much to others, but in Toronto and Ontario, the fictional defense attack of the prosecution witnesses here is particularly chilling when read against the early February headlines of a local ex-radio celebrity on trial for alleged assaults. ( )