Until Proven Innocent (31 page)

In his third Adventure, Attorney Peter Sharp is retained to represent a man accused of murder, by the planting of bombs in vehicles. The client is also suspected of being part of a conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States in an upcoming Fourth of July parade.

With the assistance of his legal ward Suzi, Peter cracks the case, identifies the real murderer, and at the same time solves the mystery of a dead body found in his friend Stuart's automobile trunk... all while falling for a lesbian lawyer, winning a Will contest, breaking up a stolen car ring 4,000 miles away, and battling with his ex-wife, who has been elected to the office of District Attorney.

In the adventure’s finale, Suzi miraculously manages to get ‘Bernie,’ her huge Saint Bernard into a courtroom, where she makes her first official court appearance, holds her first press conference, and becomes a local television hero.

*****

#4:
Conspiracy of Innocence

Suzi once again saves Peter’s case by finding the connection between two crimes that allegedly took place in different parts of the State, one of which Peter was arrested for. And once again, Peter falls for a woman who he thinks could really ‘be the one’ this time.

Peter’s ex-wife Myra must make the decision as to whether or not she should resign from prosecution of a case in which she may have a conflict of interest – Peter’s murder charge.

Everyone including Peter is sitting on the edge of their chairs as this double murder mystery comes to a shocking conclusion that involves a mafia hit man, revengeful drug dealers, a local police chief, and the ever-popular FBI.

*****

#5:
…Until Proven Innocent

Tony Edwards, A dock neighbor of Peter’s, is charged with murder. Unfortunately, he is a suspended police officer with a known dislike for people who are the color of his alleged victim. He’s also the subject of many citizen complaints for using excessive force in the minority community.

At Suzi’s request, Tony has taught her how to help him re-load his target practice ammunition, also giving the little girl a basic course in ballistics.

When a local black movie producer who Tony was working for gets killed, Suzi and talks Peter into handling Tony’s defense… which doesn’t look too good because he was arrested at the scene of the murder with his gun still smoking.

Along the way, Peter once again gets involved with who he thinks might be ‘Miss Right,’ represents a 500-pound woman who is being discriminated against, uncovers a white supremist militant organization, and also stumbles onto a group of people who are pirating DVD copies of recently released major motion pictures.

Peter’s ex-wife, District Attorney Myra Scot, makes a mistake when she subpoenas little Suzi to come and testify as a prosecution witness against the defendant, Suzi’s friend Tony.

After what Suzi does to solve the mystery and destroy Myra’s case in court, everyone knows that the District Attorney’s office will never subpoena Suzi again.

*****

#6:
The Common Law

Peter Sharp encounters a client with amnesia, who not only can’t tell Peter what his own name is, but who also has absolutely no recollection of the crime he is charged with committing. In lieu of his memory, Peter’s obtains video surveillance footage that establishes his client’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The usual crew also gets involved, including Peter’s close friend Stuart, Jack Bibberman the investigator, Laverne the ‘amorous houseboat lady’, and Stuart’s employees Vinnie and Olive – who are having some disagreement as to whether or not they’re legally married; and last but not least, little Suzi B. and her big Saint Bernard.

The law firm is still operating from their 50-foot Grand Banks trawler yacht in Marina del Rey, California… the vessel that Peter still doesn’t know how to drive. As in past adventures, all involved continue to visit the local haunts.

One way or another each of Peter’s cases winds up being a conflict with his ex-wife Myra, who is the county’s chief prosecutor. He also may be more closely involved with FBI Special Agent in Charge Bob Snell than before, as they share a dangerous high-speed situation on a winding road.

Suzi’s new friend Lotus and her mother also play an interesting part in this adventure as Peter finds that he is fighting a ring of credit-card fraud experts.

*****

#7
:
The Magician’s Legacy

Suzi has decided that she wants to study magic in this eighth legal adventure she participates in. Unfortunately, her teacher is the main suspect in what appears to be an ‘impossible’ crime… the shooting of a man in his completely locked ‘safe room.’

In order for Suzi to clear her magic teacher of liability for this crime, she must convince Peter to handle the case, which he does under one condition: Suzi must help him by solving the mystery of this locked-room murder.

Her task is made difficult because all events took place in a secure ‘panic room,’ with steel doors in place, and no windows. Somehow, the alleged murderer is believed to have committed the crime and successfully escaped from a room that could only later be opened by a crew using blowtorches.

Suzi is especially motivated to solve this enigma when she learns that an attorney who she dislikes may be involved.

*****

#8:
The Reluctant Jurist

There’s a mini flu epidemic going around in Los Angeles and it has especially taken its toll among Superior Court Judges in Santa Monica, who all seem to have been infected at the same conference they attended.

Peter has been ‘drafted’ to fill in as a temporary judge for some civil matters, but winds up getting stuck hearing a big criminal trial involving a previous attorney as the defendant… the same attorney who Peter crossed swords with in a previous situation.

Suspense enters the picture when Peter’s legal ward Suzi fails to appear as guest of honor at her own birthday party, and every local state and Federal peace officer in California wants to locate her.

This is the second adventure that Peter and Suzi B. have been involved where Suzi’s Saint Bernard may be partly responsible for a successful conclusion.

*****

#9
:
The Final Case

Suzi dislikes a certain devious attorney who Peter keeps coming up against.

When Peter’s new romantic interest invites him to a cocktail party, Suzi and the other guests are shocked by a loud noise down the hall, coming from their host’s study.

Other guests at the party include the chief of police, mayor, and district attorney, who unanimously conclude that the dead body they discover is the result of a suicide.

Even Suzi is inclined to go along with their conclusion… until she learns that the devious attorney she dislikes may be involved in handling some legal matters for the deceased.

Suzi won’t let go of this one. Against everyone’s advice, she keeps working to prove her suspicions about that devious attorney and his connections to what Suzi believes must have been murder.

*****

#10:
an Element of Peril

In this tenth and newest Peter Sharp Legal Mystery, Peter faces a double task: defending a person who is charged with murder, and also trying to locate the missing victim, who was allegedly killed in a completely locked room.

Somewhere behind the tangled mess of a down-ward-spiraling celebrity starlet, a battling married couple, a missing currency trader and a dis-appearing corpse, attorney Peter Sharp and his legal ward Suzi must find where the truth lies.

As in the past, while Peter’s client’s trial nears, Suzi has failed to come up with any workable solution that can save Peter from certain defeat and humiliation in court.

You’ll be sitting on the edge of your chair as you see the courtroom drama that takes place during the last few minutes of the trial.

*****

#11
:
A Good Alibi

In Latin, the word “alibi” literally means “somewhere else,” and to any person charged with a crime, it is an extremely valuable asset to have because it can mean the difference between an acquittal and a conviction.

However, just having an alibi isn’t enough: it has to stand up to scrutiny, because any good prosecutor knows that breaking an alibi and proving it was fraudulently concocted can lead a sure-thing conviction.

In this eleventh adventure of the Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, Peter is drawn into a role he never thought he’d be playing – that of a prosecutor, being brought in as for the singular purpose of trying to break a defendant’s apparently ‘airtight’ alibi.

*****

#12:
Legally Dead

Nobody likes a killer, but sometimes you have to put your personal feelings on hold when you’re a trained professional called upon to do a job.

When attorney Peter Sharp’s former wife Myra calls to ask a favor, he finds it difficult to refuse her, because any occasion to work with her is always a pleasure for him.

The favor that District Attorney Myra asks is for Peter to represent a client in court who wants to plead guilty to a crime. A plea bargain the defendant agreed to is already in place.

Peter agrees to the contemplated one-hour of work as a court-appointed defense attorney and makes the court appearance. But when the case is called, the surprises start, and don’t stop until the unexpected end of this twelfth of the Legal Mystery series, during which time Peter gets his first opportunity to defend a dead person charged with murder.

*****

#13:
How to Rob a Bank

There are many types of mysteries, but one kind stands out over all the others: the ones involving a
Locked Room
.

Over the years, every mystery writer worth his salt has tried to come up with one that tops all the rest: the secret compartments, doors locked from the inside, confused timelines, etc., etc. It's all been tried over and over.

Jacques Futrelle set the standard with his
Problem in Cell 1
3, and John Dickson Carr raised it a bit in his
The Hollow Man
, but there haven't been many fine stumpers since then... until now.

Mystery writer Gene Grossman has been a fan of locked room mysteries for many years, so when he created this 13th Peter Sharp Legal Mystery, it was natural for him to want to include what may be one of the most baffling locked room mystery of them all – but maybe with exception of
Book #7:
The Magican’s Legacy.

In this story, a magician is writing a book entitled “How to Rob a Bank,” and to get publicity for its upcoming publication, the author decides to show the public that he really knows of what he writes – so he plans to rob the bank he regularly does business with.

Unfortunately, things don’t work out the way he planned, and it takes little Suzi to solve this baffling mystery for all of the adults.

*****

#14: Murder Under Way

This is one of the author’s favorite genre: the locked room mystery – but this time, it’s sort of a ‘locked-boat’ mystery, because one of Peter Sharp’s boat neighbors is found murdered in his boat – mile offshore.

Complicating matters is the fact that at the time of the homicide, the victim was on the ship-to-shore radio with the Coast Guard.

The Death is ruled a suicide, because the victim’s boat was half way between Catalina Island and the coast of Southern California; it was doing more than 20 knots; the victim was alone on the boat, and surrounding land-based radar units at the Coast Guard station and Los Angeles Airport confirm that there were no other boats in the area at that time of night, at the time of the death.

Everyone believes this was a suicide – except Peter’s legal ward Suzi. She’s never been wrong in the past, so Peter starts to investigate.

See if you can match wits with a 12-year-old girl and solve the mystery of what happened and how it happened – before she does.

*****

#15: The Sherlock Holmes Caper

Some ‘outsider’ has learned that attorney Peter Sharp is a Sherlock Holmes fan and that person has been planting clues around town, each one similar to those found in separate Sherlock Holmes stories.

The District Attorney (Peter’s ex-wife) knows about Peter’s attraction to the Arthur Conan Doyle classic detective stories, so she recruits him to help figure out whether or not there is any particular meaning to these clues, and if some crime is actually being planned by some clever criminal who may be playing a game with the authorities.