As is true of all the Balzic novels, Joey's Case centers on the question of the use and misuse of power. Naturally, as a police novel, Joey's Case deals with power as it is embodied in the legal system. This system's search for justice is thwarted, in spite of the best efforts of some honest cops, district attorneys, and judges, because as a human system it is subject to disruption by incompetent police officers, uncooperative witnesses, and unscrupulous lawyers. In the end, for the first time in the series, justice totally fails, essentially because all people are not equal in the eyes of the law; justice is not blind, but astigmatic. Joey's Case is, in this respect, the most pessimistic of the series; in earlier novels some variety of justice, if not always the legal sort, did prevail.

Legal power and justice comprise only one aspect...