THE INSANITY PLEA
A young nurse is savagely killed
during a pre-dawn run on Galveston’s seawall.
The murderer slices her running shorts from her body as his trophy and
tosses the body over the wall to the rocks below. As dawn breaks, a bedraggled street person,
wearing four layers of old, tattered clothes, emerges from the end of the
jetty, waving his arms and talking to people only he hears. He trips over the body, checks for a pulse
and, instead, finds a diamond bracelet which he puts in his pocket. He hurries across the street, heading for
breakfast at the Salvation Army two blocks away, leaving his footprints in
blood as he goes.
Wayne Little, a former Galveston
prosecutor and now a Houston trial lawyer, learns that his older brother has
been charged with capital murder for the killing. At first he refuses to be dragged back into
his brother’s life. Once a brilliant
lawyer, Dan’s paranoid schizophrenia had captured his mind, causing Wayne to
become estranged from him. Finally giving
in to pleas from his mother, Wayne enlists the help of his best friend, Duke
Romack, a former NBA star turned criminal lawyer. When Wayne and Duke review the evidence, they
conclude that Dan’s chances are slim.
They either find the killer or win a plea of insanity since the
prosecution’s case is air tight. The
former may be a mission impossible since the killer is the most brilliant, devious
and cruel fictional murderer since Hannibal Lecter. The chances of winning an insanity plea are
equally grim.
It will take the combined skills
of the two lawyers along with those of Duke’s girlfriend, Claudia, a brilliant
appellate lawyer, and Rita Contreras, Wayne’s next door neighbor and computer
hacker extraordinaire, to attempt to unravel the mystery of the serial killer
before the clock clicks down to a guilty verdict for Dan.
The Insanity Plea is a spell-binding tale of four amateur sleuths
who must find, track and trap a serial killer as they prepare for and defend
Wayne brother who is trapped in a mind like that of John Nash, Russell Crowe’s character in A Beautiful Mind. Combining a legal thriller
with tracking a serial killer, Thompson takes the reader on a helluva ride,
right up to the last page and sentence.
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About Larry D. Thompson
Larry began his legal career at age twenty-three and
successfully tried seven district court cases before his twenty-fourth
birthday. Early in his career he would
often try fifteen or twenty cases in a year.
Now he has tried over three hundred with a success rate far above ninety
percent. During his career he had tried
cases involving products, trucking, medical malpractice, premises liability,
mass torts, insurance coverage, libel and commercial litigation. He is board certified in civil trial law and personal
injury trial law.
He has published four legal thrillers: So Help Me God, The Trial,Dead
Peasants, and The Insanity Plea. He has several more stacked up in his mind,
just waiting to spill out.
He successfully raised three children who now live in
Austin, Texas, Boca Raton, Florida and Vail, Colorado. So far, they have blessed him with four
grandchildren. He and his wife, Vicki,
live on three acres in Northwest Houston along with an assortment of horses,
dogs, cats, squirrels, raccoons, possums and an occasional skunk. He ran marathons for thirty years before his
knees told him it was time to retire to the gym. He golfs badly, SCUBA dives and love the
outdoors, particularly the mountains. He
has discovered that modern technology permits a virtual law office almost
anywhere. So, he spends his summers in
Vail where he manages his lawsuits by email and cell phone, hikes with his wife
and plays golf with his son, Ryan. And,
of course, he finds time to work on his latest novel.
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Praise for Insanity Plea
"Every now and then a riveting legal thriller comes along that captivates my attention from beginning to end, The Insanity Plea by author Larry D. Thompson is that book. The author calls upon his extensive legal expertise to weave a thoroughly engrossing and bone chilling tale that takes the reader inside the cold and calculating mind of a serial killer, interweaving it within the world of the mentally ill.
Set in the Galveston / Houston area, a group of amateur sleuths led by Houston trial lawyer Wayne Little, doggedly tracks down a serial killer while trying to save Dan, his mentally ill paranoid schizophrenic brother from being framed with the murder of a young nurse who was brutally killed while jogging on Galveston's seawall. With an air tight prosecution case, can Wayne save his brother from prison, or will his best defense be an insanity pleas?
The author utilizes his legal experience to provide the reader with some serious courtroom drama that will keep the reader riveted, while also drawing them into the gripping search for the serial killer that will keep them sitting on the edge of their seats until the surprising conclusion. I could easily see The Insanity Plea being made into a television or big screen movie.
Author Larry D. Thompson is a fine legal thriller author who knows how to craft a well written and provocative story. His attention to detail easily draws the reader in and keeps them engaged and guessing what will happen next as the fast paced and heart pounding story unfolds with suspenseful twists and turns. I was intrigued by his in depth look into the issue of mental illness, it provides much food for thought on how the mentally ill are treated by the US legal system.
If you are looking for an exciting legal thriller that will easily transport you into the heart of this nail biting story, while keeping you turning the pages, then The Insanity Plea is the book for you. The author sure does know how to take his readers on one hell of a thrilling roller coaster ride!"
RATING: 5 STARS
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