Blood Money (Jack Swyteck Novel) - Hardcover

Grippando, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062109847 ISBN 13: 9780062109842

Publisher: Harper, 2013

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author James Grippando delivers a powerful, nonstop thrill ride ripped from the headlines. Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck is back in his most frightening case yet, and this time the price of victory is measured in blood.

It is the most sensational murder trial since O. J. Simpson's. The nation is obsessed with Sydney Bennett, a sexy nightclub waitress and good-time girl accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter for cramping her party life. When he had agreed to defend Sydney, Jack Swyteck knew he'd be taking on the toughest and most controversial case of his career.

Millions of "TV jurors" have convicted Sydney in the court of public opinion.

When the shocking verdict of not guilty is announced, citizens across the country are outraged, and Jack is bombarded by the fallout: angry, profanity-laced phone calls and even outright threats. Media-fed rumors of "blood money"—purported seven-figure book and movie deals—ratchet up the hysteria, putting Jack's client and everyone around her at risk.

On the night of Sydney's release, an angry mob outside the jail has gathered to serve its own justice. In the frenzy, an innocent young woman bearing a striking resemblance to the reviled Sydney Bennett ends up in a coma. While the media blame Jack and his defense team, the victim's parents reach out to him, requesting his help. They don't believe the attack was the tragic result of random mob violence.

Searching for the truth about what happened that night, Jack makes a frightening discovery. Larger and much more powerful forces are working in the shadows, and what happened outside the jail is a symptom of an evil that infected the show-stopping trial and media-spun phenomenon of Sydney Bennett.

About this title

About the Author

James Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author of suspense. He was a trial lawyer for twelve years before the publication of his first novel, The Pardon, in 1994. He is now counsel at the law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and an adjunct professor of law and modern literature at the University of Miami School of Law. His novels are enjoyed world-wide in twenty-eight languages, and his novel Gone Again won the 2017 Harper Lee Prize in Legal Fiction. He lives in South Florida.

From Booklist

The latest Jack Swyteck legal thriller begins with a controversial not-guilty verdict, a violent act that leaves a young woman in a coma, and accusations of corruption leveled at Jack himself. His client, a woman accused of murdering her daughter because the girl impinged on her carefree lifestyle, is acquitted, but Jack knows there’s a lot more to the case than he’s been allowed to reveal in court. And after a woman who looks startlingly like his client is beaten nearly to death, Jack discovers that this was no weirdly coincidental act of violence but rather a result of something hidden behind the media spectacle surrounding the trial. After a few lethargic Swyteck novels, the author charged back in 2011 with Afraid of the Dark, and this one is similarly energetic, with a story that’s full of twists and turns and, not incidentally, some well-aimed criticisms of the way high-profile trials are covered by the news media. A timely and very well executed story. --David Pitt

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062109847
• ISBN 13: 9780062109842
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352