The Mourning Sexton: A Novel of Suspense

St. Louis Attorney David Hirsch is the protagonist of "The Mourning Sexton," a thoughtful, touching, and suspenseful legal thriller. Hirsch has it all--a privileged childhood, a degree from Harvard Law School, a job in a prestigious firm, a wife, and two beautiful daughters. What does he do with all his bounty? He embezzles money, sleeps around, uses cocaine and alcohol liberally, and ends up serving seven years in Allenwood, a federal penitentiary. Upon his release, David has nothing--no family, no job, and no friends, except for his old pal, fellow attorney Seymour Rosenbloom. David starts to rebuild his life slowly. He resumes practicing law under strict guidelines outlined by the Missouri Supreme Court. He also starts to attend synagogue, where he is known as the "mourning sexton," since it is his job to lead the elderly congregation in the saying of "kaddish," the prayer for the dead. When one of his fellow congregants, Abe Shifrin, asks David to look into the death of Abe's daughter, Judith, David is reluctant to get involved. Judith was a lawyer who died in a car accident three years earlier; it seems pointless to take action now. However, to please the old man, David files a wrongful death suit on Abe's behalf. While investigating the facts surrounding Judith's death, David is horrified to discover that this young woman may have been murdered. David Hirsch is a terrific character. He is a man who threw away everything that was important to him, and instead of being bitter about it, he willingly takes the punishment that he knows he deserves. However, contact with some good people, including a rabbi in prison, has given David a glimmer of what he could be. His duties as a sexton in synagogue, his relationship with Seymour, who stood by him when no one else would, and his involvement in Judith's case all bring David a sense of purpose. He decides that there are certain things in life worth fighting for--among them, family, friends, justice, and self-respect. Michael Baron's plot has some familiar elements, such as legal corruption, greed, and murder for hire. Naturally, our hero puts himself in danger while he searches for the truth behind Judith's death, and he even falls in love with a beautiful law professor. However, Baron keeps his book from merely degenerating into a series of clichés. He takes the time to flesh out the warm relationship between David and Seymour, and he skillfully shows David's growth from a man who merely exists into a real "mensch," a person of value. This book features witty, humorous, and entertaining dialogue, and a number of colorful characters, such as Jumbo Redding, an ex-con whose wizardry with computers helps David acquire vital information. Baron writes about complex legal issues skillfully, and he keeps the reader guessing until the end. "The Mourning Sexton" is a wonderful novel by an extremely talented author.

A brilliant splash on the legal thriller scene, this debut novel starts placidly with ex-con, now-restored attorney David Hirsch performing his duties as gabbai at a daily mourning ritual. He is beginning fresh after falling to extreme lows in both his legal and personal lives, working mainly bankruptcy reorganizations and settlements under the supervision of his old friend Seymour Rosenbloom. One morning, one of the men gathered for the minyan asks Hirsch to help him. He wishes to find justice for his daughter, Judith, who died three years earlier in a tragic accident. He needs to act quickly, though, before the statute of limitations runs out --- and before his memory falls victim entirely to his advancing Alzheimer's. At first, Hirsch balks, claiming his days as a plaintiff's attorney are over. But the old man's pleas, coupled with Hirsch's desire to reconnect with his own estranged daughters, persuade him to at least consider it. The story steadily gathers momentum from there. What appeared on the surface as a fairly straightforward wrongful death case starts to look much more sinister the deeper that Hirsch digs. The basic facts seem uncomplicated: Judith volunteered to drive Judge McCormick home from a party due to his advanced degree of inebriation. McCormick, a man Judith had clerked for and seemingly admired, acceded to her suggestion. Icy roads and a lack of familiarity with McCormick's SUV were blamed for what happened. The judge, apparently insulated by his relaxed alcoholic state, survived the crash. Judith did not. Her father, still smarting from the sting of a strained relationship with Judith, grappled with the decision to sue the auto manufacturer, tire fabricator, and anyone associated with the vehicle and its components. But believing that slick streets took his daughter from him is something the old man simply refuses to do. With the aid of Seymour Rosenbloom and highly respected --- and beautiful --- Dulcie Lorenz, Hirsch forges ahead against the defendants' high-powered lawyers, colleagues who carry a long-time grudge and no admiration for the recently released felon. It looked like it could get ugly. And it did. Uglier than Hirsch would have believed possible. It started to get downright dangerous. And coming out of it alive was looking doubtful. To complicate matters, the ice between him and his youngest daughter has begun to thaw. As delighted as he is to have her back in his life, he must push her away in order to protect her. In fact, he isolates himself from everyone he cares about. The less they know, the safer they will be. Author Michael Baron, an attorney himself, has no trouble making the legal aspects of the story sound authentic. The courtrooms come alive in his deft hands, with rich characters that texture THE MOURNING SEXTON with a lush feeling of realism. --- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

The Mourning Sexton is a superb novel by Michael Baron. It grows out of the death of a young attorney and builds upon that death with elements of suspense, pathos and redemption. More than just a legal thriller, however, this book has at its foundation, the redemption of the attorney who is at the center of this wonderful book. It is an intelligent and nuanced novel, which will appeal to intelligent readers, who are looking for something more than John Grisham's legal fiction.

David Hirsch was a managing partner in a prestigious St. Louis' legal firm, but cocaine and extramarital affairs resulted in David waking up in a dump in East St. Louis with a prostitute dead from an overdose sharing his bed. He was convicted for her death; his family cut all ties with him; his law license was revoked; and later he lost a major sexual harassment suit brought on by his female staffers. David spent seven years in prison reading Don Quixote, playing the harmonica, and rediscovering his Judaism. Last year the Missouri Supreme Court issued David a provisional license to practice law under the supervision of Seymour "Pancho" Rosenbloom. David services bankruptcy clients while volunteering as the sexton at a declining synagogue where meeting the minimum minyan requirement of ten males is yeoman's work. An Alzheimer's congregation member Mr. Shifrin wants David to obtain justice for his daughter law clerk Judith who died driving Judge Brendan McCormick in an SUV during a snowstorm; Mr. Shifrin blames the design of the SUV for her death. With the help of legal technician Dulcie Lorenz, Hirsch uncovers something more sinister than a "nuisance" death. He soon battles those who he once considered equals when he was at the top of the city's legal hierarchy. THE MOURNING SEXTON is an exhilarating legal thriller starring a fully developed individual trying to obtain redemption for his previous transgressions when he abused his wealth and position. The support cast augments the deep look at the born again crusading David who reclaims the ethics he once scorned. Although the Shifrin case spins into a somewhat shaky reality of a Goliath turned David against his former Goliath peers, sub-genre fans will welcome this entertaining character driven entry. Harriet Klausner

The Mourning Sexton is an intelligent, provocative novel of suspense that tracks the death of a young woman, Judith Shifrin, a law clerk for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, her mentor the Honorable Brendan McCormick. Virtually untouchable in his judgeship, McCormick is a contemporary of David Hirsch, the lawyer filing a civil wrongful death suit against the car manufacturer and other associated vendors of the automobile that potentially caused the death of the young woman one cold December night. A bit of an anomaly himself, Hirsch was once a high-flying trial lawyer, poised at the top of the legal food chain, with the hubris to prove it. Drawn into a clever embezzlement scheme, that very arrogance proves to be his undoing and Hirsch spends a number of years in Federal prison for his part in the crime, now reinstated in the practice of law under the auspices of long-time friend, Seymour Rosenbloom. Rediscovering his Jewish roots, Hirsch joins a group of men who pray together every morning at a synagogue near his home; hence the title, The Mourning Sexton, as these men, a minyan, recite prayers for the dead as part of their daily ablutions. One of these men, Abe Shifrin, convinces Hirsch to file the lawsuit on behalf of his daughter. Time is of the essence, as Shifrin has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which is progressing rapidly, pitting Hirsch against the inevitable. What should be a relatively simple settlement case turns into something entirely different, as Hirsch uncovers documentation that Judith was onto some serious legal misconduct involving high-ranking figures in St. Louis's legal establishment. What appeared to be an accident may, in fact, be murder. Hirsch incorporates the aid of best friend, a public-spirited young woman who runs a legal clinic for abused women, and some behind-the-scenes expertise of a fellow con and computer expert, following the meager trail Judith left like scattered breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretel's forest. But when everything adds up in a complex and intriguing mix of motives and sneaky machinations, Hirsch is holding evidence of a scheme to defraud that puts him imminent danger. The author, a lawyer writing under a pseudonym, dives into the world of legalities with gusto, Hirsch the underdog tacking corporate litigators that would intimidate a lesser man. Hirsch is set on his own personal atonement, former excesses and personal losses weighing on his soul, cognizant of the obstacles in his path, the enormous influence of corporate wealth and his threat to the status quo. As one high-powered, well-cushioned attorney says to Hirsch on the merits of his case: "We both know the existence of St. Louis juries is the reason why we have the court of appeals." Undaunted, Hirsch makes his bid for personal redemption and a moral resolution to a young woman's senseless death, upsetting the carefully-laid plans of St. Louis's power brokers and proving himself a changed man in