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Product Description
Former policewoman Jane Crease is now a state senator running for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate from Oregon. Tough-talking, cigar smoking Crease grabs the spotlight when she kills an intruder who's just shot her millionaire husband, Lamar Hoyt, in their mansion. Is Crease a heroine? Or did she have her own motives for wanting her husband dead? On the other hand: is she being set up by an opponent so tough that previous political adversaries have come to physical harm?
Crease's murder case is assigned to Richard Quinn, a highly ethical trial judge who finds himself being blackmailed to fix the case so that Jane Crease is convicted. The disappearance and presumed murder of a beautiful woman on a Caribbean island where Quinn had gone on vacation places him in a compromised position; yet he bends over backwards to insure that Crease, whom he believes to be innocent, isn't sent to the electric chair.
After his surprising ruling, Quinn finds that his troubles are just beginning, in this legally sophisticated thriller about a good man who digs himself deeper and deeper into an insidious maze of murder and deceit as he tries to do the right thing.
James Naughton won two Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical for his performances in the critically acclaimed City of Angels and Chicago. Other Broadway theater credits include Whose Life Is It Anyway and Long Day's Journey into Night. He has also appeared on television, and in the feature films The Good Mother, First Kid, and The Glass Menagerie.
Amazon.com Review
In this legal thriller, a young judge in Portland, Oregon, struggles to save his marriage and his career after he becomes personally involved in the murder case he's adjudicating. The judge, Richard Quinn, is a deeply principled man who has proven himself an honorable and fair-minded public servant. When an extremely wealthy undertaker is murdered in his mansion in the West Hills of town, Quinn is chosen to preside over the case. The dead man's widow, Ellen Crease, is a driven state congressional representative who is running for a seat in the United States Senate. She's a shapely, pistol-packing Republican and a former cop. She's also a suspect, as is the dead man's underachieving son. Crease's political enemies also appear to be involved in the intrigue, but it's difficult to tell. After someone connected to the case tries to blackmail the judge for an extramarital misstep, Quinn decides to take matters into his own hands. He does some investigating, shares his discoveries with people who seem to be trustworthy (but aren't), and puts himself in harm's way.
It's interesting to follow Quinn as he grapples with the ethical issues of the case. When the blackmailers want him to tip the scales of justice one way, he considers tipping them the other direction. There is also something inherently diverting about observing a basically good man who is helplessly mired in a whole heap of trouble. Throughout the book, Quinn keeps stumbling into mortal danger and confiding in all the wrong people, digging himself deeper and deeper in trouble. --Jill Marquis
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