The Good Lawyer: A Novel (The Good Lawyer Series) - Softcover

Benigno, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1463604815 ISBN 13: 9781463604813

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

Synopsis

INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY. A young, ambitious lawyer is eager to prove he is better than the father who abandoned him and worthy of the devoted mother who raised him beyond the siren call of the mobster dominated family he grew up in. Working as a Bronx Legal Aid Attorney he learns how to twist the system, how to become an unbeatable defense lawyer, and he his peacock proud of his perfect record-not a single conviction. But it's 1982. The Spiderman rapist is on the loose and New York City is a city in fear. When an outraged rape victim commits suicide right before his eyes, searching for absolution, he grabs the headline case of a teacher’s aide accused of molesting three students. Armed with a firm belief in his client’s innocence, he knocks the pegs out from under the prosecution’s case. When one of the children turns up dead, he discovers that his client may be strangely connected to the Spiderman. Digging deeper, horrifying revelations about his family's past collide with the true identity of the sadistic sociopath behind the Spiderman's rampage. In the process, this good lawyer comes face-to-face with his greatest conflict and deepest fear: to win, really win-save the city and even the woman he loves-must he sacrifice every principle he believes in and embrace his family's mafia past to become judge, jury, and executioner?

About this title

From the Author

COMING IN 2020, THE CRIMINAL MIND, 3RD IN THE GOOD LAWYER SERIESWHY I WROTE THE GOOD LAWYER BY THOMAS BENIGNO "As a Legal Aid Attorney in the South Bronx in 1982, I handled the grittiest of cases. These cases didn't just include the run-of-the-mill burglaries and robberies or drug deals at a time when miles of square blocks there were leveled to rubble and burnt out buildings seemed to be everywhere. There were much more horrible crimes there. And I was...... defender of all of it.
But this is not why I became a lawyer. I wanted to do some good--help the innocent, give the guilty poor a second chance-a chance for a better life outside of prison.
I graduated in the top 11% of my law school class. Tried a case in my 3rd year and won. Took the job at Legal Aid in the Bronx to hone my skills for a few years prior to entering private practice. There were high hopes for me. I started out on fire, getting more cases dismissed in Criminal Court than just about anyone. I was cocky, a bit arrogant. I had the makings of one damn good trial lawyer. For my age, I was convinced there was no one better. I had also fallen in love. Didn't think I needed to study for the bar. Then I flunked. When I did pass I was on a mission to prove myself. Failing was humiliating. So I took on the most difficult of cases intent on winning at almost any cost. And I did win, time and again. Rapists, child molesters and drug dealers were freed, and all my doing. Finally, I couldn't take it any more, accolades and all. I was a young man drowning in the conscience of my own success.
This was not the boy my Mom raised me to be. She purposely kept me away from my mob connected relatives who were now dropping like flies in burnt out Cadillacs and after hour joints, winding up charred remains of flesh, stuffed in garbage cans, wrapped in plastic.
Then a case came through the system. Headlines. No prior arrest record. Horrible crime. He could be innocent.
This is why I became a lawyer- to champion for the innocent man.
And so life set me up for the greatest fall ever. Years later I couldn't shake what I had done, so I wrote it down. The original title of my novel was "The Confession." Then Grisham came out with it. So why not then..."The Good Lawyer."
A fictional account--the names changed to protect the innocent. My name on the cover remains the same.

Don't hesitate to give the author feedback after or even during your read of "The Good Lawyer" at: tombenigno@aol.com.
Website: facebook.com/TheGoodLawyerTwitter @ThomasBenignoInstagram: Thomas Benigno, Author And follow the author on Goodreads.com             

Book clubs don't hesitate to email the author at tombenigno@aol.com for an appointed video conference with your club anywhere in the world, or an in-person talk in and around the New York City, Long Island or Westchester areas.
Thank you in advance for your interest.
Thomas Benigno

From the Inside Flap

AVAILABLE NOW:The Criminal Lawyer, the sequel to The Good Lawyer.See the PROLOGUE below TO THE CRIMINAL LAWYER BY THOMAS BENIGNO:
It was the perfect day and the perfect place... 
He parked his green sun-bleached van on the shoulder alongside the dune. Standing beside the tall mound of sand speckled with beach grass, he had yet to see or hear another car pass on the road behind him.
Amid a warm and oddly soothing June wind he turned to face north and the bay--a mirror of tranquility. The faint hum of a crossing motor boat was testament to the resolute serenity of this beautiful day. 
He took a long deep breath, looked up at the sky, and smiled. A resplendent sun shone beside a lone white cloud, and as far as his eyes could see, he was alone, but for that man sitting high on the dune, staring at the ocean. 
Arms outstretched for balance, he buried each wolverine boot in the sand as he climbed. Once on top, with elbows bent, and hands high on his hips, he surveyed the beach from one end to the other. 
It was late afternoon. The crowd had thinned. Soaking up what remained of the sun, a few leather-skinned seniors lay face up on their recliners. Two teenagers threw a Frisbee. Others played volleyball. Parents gathered together blankets, towels and chairs while struggling to corral their small children into leaving. 
In an hour or two, this quarter mile stretch between the dune and the ocean would be nearly desolate, but come the morning sun, it would begin to populate, as ever, once again. 
Because the beach is winsome, and seductive, and therapeutic. 
There is no cause for worry and fear in the pure and uncomplicated world of sun, wind, and water. 
As he pivoted and stepped back down, only the fleeting movement of a shadow marked his presence to the man who remained sitting, and seemed to pay him no mind. 
Walking quickly past his van he looked both ways before crossing the two-lane roadway aptly named Ocean Parkway. After twenty precise steps, and in the marsh up to his knees, he stopped to study the small stretch of wetland where the stalks spread thin then disappeared into the encroaching bay. Turning around again toward the ocean, he looked up and across in an attempt to decipher the precise distance between the parkway lamps and the limits of its cones of light in the dead of night. 
His calculating done, this would be his last visit, his only visit, in the bold brightness of day. One last breath, one last taste and smell of the salty air, and he would be gone, never to return in the light, but more certain than he had ever been.
This area so close, yet so secluded was, bar none, the perfect place to leave the bodies.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1463604815
• ISBN 13: 9781463604813
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 317