Running with the Dead

Sex, murder, intimidation, politics, and a personal grudge combine in a white-hot legal thriller by Jay Brandon, “a talent to be reckoned with." Rave Reviews Chris Sinclair is haunted by ghosts: the ghost of Malachi Reese, a murderer whom Chris put on death row, and the ghost of Henry Claremont, a dedicated high-school teacher whom Chris defended when Henry was accused of sexually abusing a student. Reese is still alive and in prison, but he's petitioned for a new trial, claiming that someone else who looks uncannily like him actually committed the crimes for which he was convicted. Henry is dead, brutally killed less than a week after Chris won his acquittal. Four years later, H.R. "Hike" Grimason, then the school's varsity basketball coach and now deputy superintendent of the school district, is on trial for his murder. Grimason and Henry became adversaries when Henry accused Grimason of taking bribes from parents in return for giving their sons more playing time. Recently, evidence has come to light linking Hike to Henry's murder. Chris has vowed to secure justice for his departed friend, but it won't be easy. A key witness at Henry's original trial, a woman who revealed her affair with the teacher to save him, lost both her job and her family as a result of her testimony. Now she is unwilling to relive the pain of the first trial, and Grimason has intimidated other witnesses who might testify against him. Chris won’t back down in the face of Grimason's tactics—or those of his defense attorney, a former judge with whom Sinclair has a history. Worse yet, the specter of Malachi Reese won't leave him to prosecute one trial at a time. Because Reese—or his doppelgänger—has targeted Chris and his daughter, Clarissa, with murderous attacks. “Brandon is among the best in the legal-thriller business at catching the real atmosphere of a trial.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “I’ve long been persuaded that Jay Brandon is the finest writer of legal thrillers in the country.”—JEREMIAH HEALY, bestselling author of TURNABOUT