Expert Testimony

Gideon page is the new guy in the public defender's office (he just happens to be the oldest one there) in black well county, Arkansas. He is just trying to get along the best he can after the death of his wife a few years earlier from cancer and the P.D. job pays the bills. At home he has a 17 year old daughter (going on 21) that thinks the little brother of one of Gideon's more annoying co workers wants to go out with her and she isn't shy about telling her father that he really needs to stop bringing home women who's bra size matches their I.Q. Into all this comes what appears to be a slam dunk case of the insanity plea when a mental patient kills the husband of a psychologist who he believed was in love with him and wanted to marry him. The only problem was that the husband was a popular judge that was up for election and his colleagues want blood. Sensing that the P.D assigned to the task is not going to give it his all, Gideon volunteers to take on the case and make sure that the man gets a fair chance at trial. Soon Gideon finds that the judge was not the man every one thought he was and that he had a few skeletons in his closet that were starting to come out when he was killed. Throw in a pit bull of a criminal defense lawyer, one psychologist who will give whatever diagnosis is needed for the right price, one psychologist who doesn't believe in what he practices, a very tangled love triangle and Mr. Page is going to have to step very carefully unless he wants to join the judge in early retirement. ------------------------------------------------- While the above description may sound a bit generic, in this case it's the writing that makes this book worth reading. It's hard to summarize the story without giving away the surprises that made me keep reading. The book is not very long but it does pack quite a bit in and the ending while it may seem a bit generic it does tie everything up. I would recommend this to anyone who likes lite mysteries with characters that don't quite fit the mold. M.a.c

this was Stockley's first published work and is very good, especially from a legal perspective. He is a public defender, as am I, and I felt throughout the book he was true in his dealing with that profession and its problems and good sides. thought the ending was a little underwhelming, but really enjoyed reading the book and look forward to picking up the other in the Gideon Page series.