Former Foster's Reporter-Turned-Attorney Authors Mystery Novel By Kathy Eaton
Rochester — With publication of his first novel, Do Unto Others, Rochester native and former cub reporter for Foster's Daily Democrat Robert C. "Robin" Varney, 68, has returned to writing after a forty-plus year career in New Hampshire's legal profession.
If it's true that "It takes one to know one," then Varney, now of Wolfeboro, should know the main character in his first work of fiction very well.
Like the story's Judge Harry Warren, Varney is also a judge. In fact, he's New Hampshire's longest sitting judge, having served for four decades in the Carroll County District and Circuit Court. For most of those years, he also maintained a fulltime legal practice as a partner at Walker and Varney, Wolfeboro, formerly, Cooper, Hall and Walker, of Rochester.
When he retired from practice two years ago he increased his time on the bench from one to three days a week. And he published a novel.
Do Unto Others is a murder mystery set in a fictional New Hampshire town somewhere in central New Hampshire with a view of the White Mountains. The nearby city of Hadley, another Varney creation, bears a strong resemblance to the author's hometown, Rochester.
No one knows the mysterious woman found shot to death in the woods; no one, that is, except Judge Harry who had a steamy, adulterous affair with the lovely lady some years back...
Varney's array of characters, including rural New Hampshirites, transplanted intellectual yuppies and aristocratic "summer people" paint an often humorous, yet typical picture of many New Hampshire small towns.
Kirkus Reviews recently praised the novel's "richness of character and dialogue," adding "The most striking success is the creation of Harry Warren, a flawed man who is neither as flawed nor as stealthy as he thinks." (See more reviews at robertcvarney.com.)
In addition to the introduction of rich characters like Harry (his sister-in-law Livy is a piece of work too) what makes Do Unto Others more than just another "who-done-it" is Varney's hands-on knowledge and use of forensic investigation, police procedure, and legal documents, all of which he sees in his courtroom.
But it's the way Harry's conscience worries over and manipulates all this that shows Varney can be a writer first and a legal eagle second.
Like many debut authors, Varney called upon his own life experience in developing his characters, including Judge Harry; they both went to the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), both became lawyers and judges, both had mothers who were writers. But this is no autobiography.
"We all have moments of revelation into the habits of others," said Varney. "Some of Harry's observations are my own, and some are his. But he's a very different guy."
Judge Harry is the central character in a cast of players inspired by bits and pieces of real people. "The lawyers are an amalgamation of people I knew in college or law school; people I've watched as a law clerk, an attorney and a judge."
With the introduction of the wealthy and influential Llewelyn Family of Philadelphia (Harry's in-laws) Varney opens a door into a way of life he only came to know himself when he attended Penn in the 1960s. Certainly Harry's introduction to wearing loafers without socks, and tuxedos (no, no, "black tie") must have first been Varney's.
Varney was born in London, England during the World War II blitz. His father was a B26 navigator in the US Army Air Force and his mother a Welsh nurse. He spent the first year of his life in the care of his maternal grandmother in Wales, a servant in an English Manor House.
After the war he and his parents moved to Rochester where his father had been born and raised. A Dartmouth College graduate and recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, his father joined the three-generation family insurance business, then went on to teach math at Spaulding High School for many years.
Varney's mother, Joyce (James) Varney, was the one who inspired him to write. Her first, and most successful book, A Welsh Story, part memoir and part novel, lead to a two-year fellowship at Radcliff and a twenty-year teaching career at Antioch College's Baltimore and London Schools.
Varney went to college intending to become a writer. He "enjoyed college immensely," forming friendships at Penn that endure today, but admits he'd have gotten a better education if he'd spent as much time on his studies as he did everything else.
Returning to New Hampshire after graduation from Penn in1966 he went to work as a reporter for Foster's Daily Democrat, his hometown newspaper.
"There was this wonderful secretary, Dell Colby," said Varney. "I'll never forget her. She saved all my articles and put them in a scrapbook. I didn't appreciate it until later."
"Later" meant after Lt. Varney, Platoon Leader in the Second Infantry Division of the US Army, completed two years of military service, one of them leading patrols in the DMZ on the Imjim River between North and South Korea.
"It was 1968, the height of the Vietnam War. We lost some guys, but this was good duty by comparison," he said.
With his military obligation behind him, Varney pulled out Colby's scrapbook and reviewed his work. In the ten months he wrote for the Democrat he'd gone from writing obituaries to covering the major stories of the day, but...
"When I looked at my writing I said to myself, ‘Varney, you've got to find another way to make a living. That's when I decided to apply to law school."
Two years of growing up in the Army worked its magic and Varney's experience at Georgetown proved very different than at Penn. He was high in his class, an editor of Law and Policy in International Business, served as housemaster in one of Georgetown's dormitories, and won a clerkship to the US District Court in Washington, DC.
"There I had the opportunity to watch some of the best lawyers from the biggest firms in America," he said. "But here in New Hampshire, over the past forty years, I've seen attorneys who are on par with those guys. Most have no idea how good they are."
Varney enjoys working as a judge. "What's not to love about it?" he asked. "When they hand you those black robes you are blessed with the presumption that you are fair-minded, that you have the goodwill and integrity to see all sides. You have an obligation to live up to those presumptions. No one does, but everyone tries."
Here the differences between Judge Harry Warren and Judge Robert Varney surface.
Judge Harry sees neither himself, nor his job in this light. Convinced by most everyone around him that he is much less a person intellectually, morally, and even financially, than a judge should be, Harry works hard at maintaining the illusion that he is what the "black robes" say he is, yet still gives in to temptation that jeopardizes all he has won in his fifty something years.
It will take more than one book to figure out just what makes Harry tick, and Varney promises we will have that opportunity.
Local residents will have an opportunity to meet Varney Wednesday, October 23 at the Rochester Public Library at 7 pm when Varney will read his work, answer questions and sign books.