Accused
ACCUSED
MARK GIMENEZ
Navarchus Press
Praise for ACCUSED
Best-seller lists
No. 7, South Africa
No. 8, London
Sunday Times
hardback
No. 11, Ireland
No. 14, UK paperback
"Some critics are calling the Texas-based lawyer Mark Gimenez 'the next Grisham'—but I think that's far less than fair. This, his fifth novel and the second featuring attorney A. Scott Fenney, shows he's now better than the one-time master of the American courtroom drama. For my money, Grisham has grown stale over the past five years while Gimenez has gone from strength to strength. If you doubt me, sample this cracking thriller which sees Fenney defend his former wife against the allegation that she killed the man she left him for, millionaire golf professional Trey Rawlins… . This is one of the best legal thrillers since Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent in 1987 … Superb."
–
Daily Mail
(UK)
"Brilliant writing, masterful plot and all the thrill of the courtroom in one. Grisham, step aside."
–
City AM
(UK)
"Gimenez has set his bloody murder trial
Accused
against the background of a failed marriage, single-parenting issues and male infidelity… . This mix of family values, sex, sleaze and intrigue holds together in a gripping read with unexpected twists that ranks with anything Grisham has done in years."
–
The Times
(UK)
"Gimenez writes smart vernacular dialogue, hip and street-wise, with a nice line in social commentary, and his plotting leaves the over-rated John Grisham in his rear-vision mirror."
–
The Australian
"Courtroom drama at its finest… . Great ending, too."
–
Perth Now
(Australia)
"Gimenez's latest novel
Accused
is classic Grisham at his best."
–
Gisborne Herald
(New Zealand)
"A great read… . Gimenez is a thriller writer of quality."
–
Oamuru Mail
(New Zealand)
"You’ll be handcuffed and imprisoned from the first page."
–
Joburg.co.za
(South Africa)
"If you enjoy suspense and a fast-paced courtroom drama, this one's for you."
–
Foschini Club Magazine
(South Africa)
"
Accused
is an engaging and character-led legal thriller. Gimenez's dialogue and prose are as fluid and natural as we've come to expect, and the pacing of the plot will keep pulling you along. When we're finally brought into the court-room, the author actually makes it gripping and tense, even though we've been following Scott and his team's investigation every step of the way.
Accused
, therefore, offers the reader everything they could want from a thriller, and is a very satisfying read."
–
Civilian–Reader
(UK)
Gimenez's plots are driven by surprises and twists, while the stakes are much higher than what one can possibly imagine at the beginning of the book. What's more, the Texan lawyer, A Scott Fenney, grips our interest with his mind games, and we are compelled to turn one page after another to discover where the story is headed. Gimenez is in good form in Accused. He is equally good in the companion book, The Color of Law. Unputdownable for those who love the genre."
–
The Times of India
LEARN MORE ABOUT MARK GIMENEZ'S BOOKS AT
Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gimenez
Published by Navarchus Press, LLC
First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Navarchus Press, LLC. Published in the United States of America.
ISBN 978-0-9839875-3-6
British Hardback ISBN 978-1-84744-275-8
British C Format ISBN 978-1-84744-276-5
British B Format ISBN 978-0-7515-4224-0
Kindle Edition: 1.00 (9/13/2011)
Ebook conversion:
Fowler Digital Services
Rendered by: Ray Fowler
Cover image © Silas Manhood
Cover design: Little, Brown Book Group – Emma Graves
The author—a BOI himself—dedicates this book to the residents of Galveston, Texas, who are working hard to rebuild their great Island after Hurricane Ike.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
FORTY-ONE
FORTY-TWO
FORTY-THREE
FORTY-FOUR
FORTY-FIVE
FORTY-SIX
FORTY-SEVEN
FORTY-EIGHT
FORTY-NINE
FIFTY
FIFTY-ONE
FIFTY-TWO
FIFTY-THREE
EPILOGUE
Books By Mark Gimenez
Praise for Mark's Books
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My sincere thanks to everyone at the Little, Brown Book Group in the UK, as well as everyone at Hachette Livre and Little, Brown in Australia and New Zealand and Penguin Books in South Africa, for making my books best sellers around the world. Also, a special thanks to Joel Tarver at T Squared Design in Houston for my website and email blasts to my readers. And thanks to all the readers who have emailed me about my books. Your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you.
Innocence: The absence of guilt.
Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Ed.
PROLOGUE
When she opened her eyes, she did not know that her life would never be the same.
All she knew was that her body was shivering violently. She wrapped her arms but felt even colder, almost wet from the sea breeze. The French doors leading to the deck outside stood propped open, and the breeze billowed the sheer curtains. In the vague light, they looked like whitecaps of waves rolling ashore. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand: 3:45
A.M.
She got out of bed—the tile floor felt damp beneath her feet, as if it had rained in—and went over to shut the doors, but the scent of the sea lured her outside. She parted the curtains and stepped out onto the deck. The house stood on tall stilts like an eight-legged white flamingo perched among the sand dunes; the second-story deck overlooked the secluded stretch of Galveston beach and the Gulf of Mexico beyond. She walked to the far railing where she could see the last ripples of high tide dying out just feet from the house. She inhaled the sea and tasted the salt in the air. She often woke and came out here in these quiet hours when the moon offered the only light, when all color was washed out by the night, when her world was painted only in shades of gray.
She lived her life in shades of gray.
She gazed out at the twinkling lights of the offshore drilling platforms dotting the distant horizon; she liked to think they were the lights of Cancún. She had often imagined taking the yacht straight across the Gulf the seven hundred fifty miles to Cancún—and never returning. Maybe one day she would.
Maybe. One day.
The breeze blew her short nightgown tight against her lean body; the silk seemed to stick to her skin. She clutched herself again. It was early June, and the night temperature had not dipped below eighty, but she had still caught a chill. A big wave splashed ashore, and the sea spray hit her. She licked the wet from her lips then reached up and wiped her face; she could not see the dark streaks down her cheeks that her hands had left in their wake, but her face now felt even wetter. She touched her cheeks again then looked down at her hands. Her palms were shiny with a wetness that was dark in the moonlight, dark and wet like …
She turned and ran back inside. She fought her way through the curtains then slapped her hands against the wall until she found the light switch—the stark white bedroom was suddenly ablaze with incandescent light. The shades of gray were gone. Her world was now painted bright red: red on the white bed sheets … red footprints on the white tile floor leading from the bed out to the deck where she had stepped … red handprints on the white wall where she had searched for the light switch … red on the white curtains where she had fought through them … red on her white nightgown … and red on her. Bright red. Blood red. His blood. She stood drenched in his blood. And he lay on the bed with a knife in his chest.
