The Burden of Persuasion - Hardcover

Anna Faktorovich Dr

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1681143240 ISBN 13: 9781681143248

Publisher: Anaphora Literary Press, 2017

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The trauma of retiring early forces FBI Special Agent B. Clare Ryan to conduct an unsanctioned investigation into one of her first cases for the Bureau back in 1988. After an unfavorable verdict that was the culmination of eight years of litigation over claims of sexual harassment of Ida Callaghan by the management at the Bedford Bank in Manhattan, her father, Bradley, shot the judge over the case, Vincente Brunetti, to death at his suburban residence before committing suicide. The case is outrageous enough on its own, but Ryan is more interested in why her supervisor at the FBI forbade her from investigating it and destroyed the suicide note that Bradley left behind. This clue leads her to a diary that accuses many powerful men in New York of corruption. Now in 2013, the trail might be cold, but Ryan digs up ancient records and does everything possible, including breaking into private vaults and morgues to get to the truth, which turns out to be more explosive than she predicted. Ryan reproduces original diaries, notes, letters, police reports and other documents that finally sufficiently prove the case that both Bradley and his daughter lost. Ryan takes on the burden of persuasion and brings this case to the public at large, hiding under the veil of fiction what she cannot expose in the court of law. What was the connection between this federal Judge and a major bank like Bedford? What drove Bradley to homicide instead of another appeal? Why were there five hundred sparkling-new, but unused, Bronx-made Vachengrais autos parked outside Bradley's precinct in 1969? What was Bradley's boyhood friend, Terry, who later became the Chief of NYPD, doing on a military base in East Germany in 1955 that sent everybody in this story on a violent collision course? This mystery begins after the whodunit is long solved. Only hidden personal confessions can display what corruption has obstructed from the eyes of justice.

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About the Author

Anna Faktorovich is the Director and Founder of the Anaphora Literary Press. She is currently teaching college English at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously, she taught for three years at the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the Middle Georgia State College. She has a Ph.D. in English Literature and Criticism. She published two academic books with McFarland: Rebellion as Genre in the Novels of Scott, Dickens and Stevenson (2013) and The Formulas of Popular Fiction: Elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Religious and Mystery Novels (2014). She published two poetry collections Improvisational Arguments (Fomite Press, 2011) and Battle for Athens (Anaphora, 2012). She published two fantasy novellas with Grim's Labyrinth Publishing: The Great Love of Queen Margaret, the Vampire (2014) and The Campaigns against the Olden: Kingdoms of Laruta (2014). She won the MLA Bibliography, Kentucky Historical Society and Brown University Military Collection fellowships.

Review

"Very gripping legal thriller! There's more than just the narrative about a spectacular ending of a sexual harassment case. One can learn a lot about the culture of the New York Police in the second half of the 20th century, about the unraveling of sound banking and the workings of the American judicial authorities. ****1/2" -LibraryThing, Vienna Max, May 23, 2017

"Anna Faktorovich has created a beautiful work of fiction based on real and true injustices on many fronts. The fictional story is of retired FBI agent, Clare Ryan, who becomes almost obsessed with a murder that happened many years ago and the disturbing cover-up from her own agency. A murdered judge, the suicide of the murderer--everything seemed quite neatly tied up and resolved. That's just the tip of the literary iceberg that I found this book to be. The story unfolded in such a pressure-cooking and mysterious way that you first don't see it coming, and then as the momentum builds, you can't outrun it. The frustration and devastation caused by multiple crooked systems (designed to serve and protect, dispense justice, honor codes of business and industry) that you feel for each and every character is palpable. The author's impeccably researched and documented truths were part of the thrill to me. When I finished the book, upon realizing what I'd been reading, I was inspired to search for the real news stories that brought us Anna's work. I don't see how this story could have been told any better or from more interesting angles. My deepest gratitude goes out to Anna Faktorovich for such a compelling story with layers upon layers of emotional carnage that occur when corruption rules. How far can people be pushed before they strike back? *****" --Mary Adams, GoodReads, Law Librarian, Office of Attorney General Jeff Landry, Louisiana

"This is an extraordinary book - its combination of levels from the publisher indicating that a (perhaps) fictional former FBI agent uncovered diaries of the perpetrator of a crime (killing the judge in his daughter's harassment trial) and then also finding the daughter Ida's first-hand account - all interwoven with discussion of harassment and bad treatment (in the FBI too) of women, treated as secondhand citizens - even when we read the judge's notes to his wife as she worked up his opinion for him - she too sees that the judgement/opinion he has evolved against the victim is flawed - but he is too lazy to alter it, or bring real thought to bear on it - and she caves (she also scrubs the floor, insisting piously that she ought to)... the underlying anger - acted out by an enraged father - bristles throughout the compelling story of her search into the crime that got away from her in the early days of her career - this is a terrific book, and deserves good attention. ****" -Leslie Gardner, co-founded Artellus Ltd.

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