Brian Melville Kennedy

My life's journey has been a latitude adjustment. Born in Renfrew, Ontario in 1948. I learned not to blink for fear of missing summer. My life has followed a serpentine path from Northern Canada to our present home on the North Coast of Jamaica. Stops along the way include Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan; Barcelona, Spain; Lugano, Switzerland; Aurora, Ontario; East Lansing, Michigan; and twenty-six years in Bay City, Michigan. The twists and turns have taken my wife, Shelley, and me to the the 18th Parallel, where we live on the Caribbean shore. Finally got the right latitude!

I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Michigan State University, before attending Wayne State Law, obtaining my Juris Doctorate in 1974. I worked as a stockbroker during the day while attending law school at night. What a grind!

I pestered Bay County Prosecutor Gene Penzien tirelessly for my first job out of law school. He finally relented. In the years from 1974 to 1978 I tried in excess of 100 jury trials and became Chief Trial Attorney, and Head of Career Offender Program in Bay County, Michigan. As a prosecutor I tried multiple murder trials to conviction as well as the full cornucopia of other criminal offenses. I taught evidence and criminal procedure at Delta College.

In 1978 I yielded to an urge to try my hand at politics and ran for State Senator. Thankfully, the other guy won. Now, I had to figure out how to support a wife and baby daughter, Shannon.

I then began a career in private practice which spanned 1979 to 2001. I was what I describe in my books as a "Bone Diver". A bone diver is the antithesis of a silk stocking attorney. He or she works solo or in a small firm and has few corporate or insurance clients. He and his fellows fight for the scraps that fall from the legal table in order to make rent and payroll.

I successfully defended multiple homicide and other felony cases. My courtroom experience attracted a growing number of civil cases. We secured multiple million dollar verdicts and settlements for deserving clients. I was chosen as a lecturer by the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education.

My Father's death brought with it the awful realization that I was unlikely to prove immortal. We all live just a banana peel away; don't we? So, Shelley and I fulfilled a long held dream of living by the sea. We built our dream house, Stonefield Cove, a few miles west of Ocho Rios and are living ever after with our ridgeback/mastiff clan of four dogs, Ayo, Chakka, Napoleon, and Josephine. Life is good!

Our daughter Shannon and her husband, Billy Newby, live in Georgia and raise our lovely grand children, Rearden and Kieran Ellis as well as acres and acres of wine grapes.

So why write novels? My opponents and judges after reading my legal briefs and pleadings have accused me of writing fiction for years. My first novel, "Improved Lies" was a well reviewed legal thriller, and sold nicely. The second novel, "immortal Lies" now arrives ten years later. Why the delay? Jamaica nice, you know!

"Immortal Lies" is book two in the series. It too is a legal thriller. Cutting edge bio science battles faith in a packed courtroom. The jury must decide whether Restoration Biopharma's wonder drug is an elixir for eternal life, or all the hype is nothing more than "Immortal Lies" Ken Edwards new partner, Tina Botham, takes a star turn as a lady lawyer of talent and style.

As they say here in Jamaica:"Don't you dare miss it!"