Criminal Defense Attorney Mitch Turner is awoken in the middle of the night by a message from his nerdy law school employee Timothy Cooper begging Mitch for help. Uncertain about the problem from Timothy's cryptic texts, Mitch Turner slips into his suit and heads over to visit Timothy, unable to imagine any reason why Timothy would be calling for help at such a late hour. Mitch arrives to find the police at Timothy's apartment and learns that Timothy's roommate was murdered.

Mitch immediately retrieves Timothy from the police before they can get him to say anything more and, while in the process, has a run-in with his ex-girlfriend, who is now a detective. Mitch takes Timothy back to his office to debrief, but not long afterward, the police show up and arrest Timothy for the murder of his roommate.

There are no witnesses. There are no other suspects.

The police consider it an open-and-shut case, but the only thing that keeps Mitch from arranging a plea bargain is his belief that his client did not do it. The deeper Mitch digs, the more he learns that his client has secrets that he wants to be kept quiet at any cost, even at the expense of going to jail for something he did not do. Mitch soon learns he must work at odds with his client to provide the best legal representation possible, going around Timothy as he fights to keep his client out of jail.

Can Mitch Turner learn the truth while also serving his client's best interests?

If you like legal thrillers, this novel is for you. Mitch Turner is a fast-talking lawyer who takes risks where others might not. Fans of John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and Scott Turow will enjoy this story. Pick up your copy today!

Second edition released August 4, 2021.

Sneak peek:

I sent the message and tried to figure out what my next step ought to be. I had intentionally not asked for details but I needed to know what I was walking into.

The communications should be privileged, but I wasn’t going to trust to that, especially not in the heat of the moment.

If the fool had thought to encrypt his phone this might have been easier. My instruction to password protect his phone had been done more to protect me than him. If it wasn’t encrypted it was already too late.

From now on I was going to require every employee to encrypt their phone. Of course, I expected this would be the first and last time I would ever have an employee call me for criminal defense work.

“Ok. What next?” Timothy sent as a text.

“Our communications should be privileged,” I texted back, “assuming you want me to be your attorney. Are you retaining my services as your attorney?”

The message came back instantly. “Yes.”

“In a typical situation I would have you pay a retainer and sign an agreement, but we do not have time. We will go over the details later. I am assuming you are willing to pay. Correct?”

While this might have seemed a little self-serving, I just wanted to make sure that I had evidence to back me up if I needed to prove an attorney-client relationship had formed. What I had already done should have been sufficient, but I liked to be thorough.

“I will pay whatever I can. My dad can wire you the retainer.”

“Please be succinct in response to my next question. Assume the cops will read it so admit nothing.”

I waited.

“What are we dealing with here?” I sent a moment later. It was a minute or two before Cooper replied.

“My roommate is dead on his bed."