ABOUT THE BOOK

Defence attorney, Joseph Antonelli is a stranger to defeat. There doesn't seem to be a case, no matter how implausible, that is beyond him. Until the phone rings one crisp April morning and Judge Rifkin asks Antonelli to defend Johnny Morel, a con man and a convicted drug dealer accused of raping his 12 year old step-daughter, Michelle. The prosecution's case is riddled with inconsistencies and Michelle's history of sexual abuse could be the perfect straw man for the defence. With the testimony of Morel's femme fatale wife, Denise, there just might be a way out of the conviction.

Antonelli never confused the legal system with justice, so it should have been routine to defend a man he knew was guilty. And it should have ended there. No one suspected it would all end in murder!

The Defence is a psychological study in suspense. In a world where morality has been reduced to a hefty legal fee and truth to a commodity. The Defence is a tour de force about the strengths of passion, the elusiveness of truth and the lethal repercussions of injustice.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"..a fast moving, ingenious, thoroughly gripping legal thriller with a compelling plot and the moral and emotional authority of a literary novel" - Publishers Weekly