Judicious Murder

Defense attorney Susan Marshfield’s life is spent challenging prosecutors, charming juries, and liberating her clients, most of whom are attired in orange jumpsuits. When her former trial partner and mentor, Sam Kendall, now a judge, is bludgeoned to death in his chambers, she catapults into the murder investigation with the same take no prisoners mentality that fuels her courtroom victories. Is the murderer one of the hostile witnesses or bitter prosecutors Sam bested in his long legal career? Why did he launder 150 thousand dollars through a secret account? Susan’s quest leads her to reopen a murder case she and Sam lost at trial. She becomes convinced their client, now in the penitentiary, is innocent. Did the perpetrator in that case murder Sam too? When Susan forces the killer into an endgame she becomes the object of a crazed pursuit and finds herself in a midnight battle of wits and cunning with an opponent she unknowingly trusted far too much.

Val Bruech has represented the unjustly accused for more than 20 years in Oregon and Illinois and has learned that the true story often originates from the darkest chamber of the soul. She has been published in Oregon Coast Magazine. She lives in Beaverton, Oregon.