Synopsis (from
the publisher):
Just minutes after winning a $1.6 million wrongful-death verdict,
attorney David Sloane confronts the one case that threatens to blemish
his unbeaten record in the courtroom. Beverly Ford wants Sloane to sue
the United States government and military in the mysterious death of
her husband, James, a national guardsman killed in Iraq. While a
decades-old military doctrine might make Ford's case impossible to win,
Sloane, a former soldier himself, is compelled to find justice for the
widow and her four children in what is certain to become the biggest
challenge of his career.
With little hard evidence to go on, Sloane calls on his friend,
reclusive former CIA agent turned private investigator Charles Jenkins,
to track down the other men serving with Ford the night he died.
Alarmingly, two of the four who returned home alive didn't stay that
way for long, and though the mission's wheelchairbound commander now
works for a civilian contractor, he refuses to talk. The final -- and
youngest -- soldier is also the most elusive, but he's their only shot
at discovering the truth -- if Sloane and Jenkins can keep him alive
long enough to tell it.
Meanwhile, Sloane isn't the only one on a manhunt. As he propels his
case into a federal courtroom, those seeking to hide the truth threaten
Sloane's family, forcing his new wife Tina and stepson Jake into
hiding, where they become the targets of a relentless killer. Now
Sloane must race to uncover what really happened on that fatal mission,
not only to bring justice to a family wronged but to keep himself and
the people closest to him from becoming the next casualties.
— ◊ —
— ◊ —
Wrongful Death
A David
Sloane Mystery
Robert
Dugoni
Touchstone (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-4165-9100-1 (1416591001)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-9100-9 (9781416591009)
Publication Date: April 2009
List Price: $25.00
— ◊ —
Review: Robert
Dugoni's second legal thriller to feature David Sloane, Wrongful Death, has the Seattle
attorney with an unblemished record taking on a case with seemingly
impossible odds of winning.
Sloane, who has just won a million dollar plus wrongful death verdict,
is approached by a woman who wants him to take legal action against the
United States and its military in what she believes is the wrongful
death of her husband, James Ford, a National Guardsman who was killed
in Iraq. Whereas a wrongful death verdict can be proven and won in a
civil case, it is for all intents and purposes impossible to win the
same verdict against the military by virtue of the “Feres
Doctrine.” This age old doctrine specifies that when an inductee
takes the oath of enlistment, he or she swears to protect the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and
domestic. At that same time the inductee (and/or any member of their
family) also forfeits their right to sue the government or the
military, or any superior officers therein, for any injury or death
which incurs “incident to service”, even if it could be
proven that those superior officers acted negligently or deliberately
to deprive the inductee of their Constitutional rights. Sloane, a
former wounded member of the military himself, feels compelled to take
the case and find some justice for James Ford and his family even
though it is clear in his mind that he would in all likelihood lose.
This explosive novel effectively blends a fictional account of an event
in Iraq with headlines ripped from today's news. Five men of the
National Guard from Seattle had been called to duty and sent to Iraq
where they were part of the same company. On a mission to deliver food,
cigarettes and other items to the soldiers in the field of battle, four
of the men were injured, one was killed. James Ford, the dead soldier,
had pulled their captain from a collapsing building to safety before
dying; the captain’s legs were paralyzed for life. All received
the Purple Heart. At the time, the four surviving men gave almost
identical accounts of the actions leading up to and including the death
of Ford. But can this be possible? Sloane knows that it is highly
unlikely. But before he can talk to all of them, one committed suicide
and one was murdered. A third man was killed shortly after Sloane
talked to him, and the fourth now works for the corporation that had
contracts in Iraq providing a conflict of interest. In the meantime,
Sloane and his family are threatened with violence if he does not stop
his inquiry. Will he be able to uncover the deceit, obtain justice for
the death of Ford, and still keep his family out of harm’s way?
An exciting, moving tale of loyalty, deceit, friendship, duty, greed,
and valor, Wrongful Death is
an exceptional novel that not only ranks among the best of its genre,
it is among the best books to be published this year.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Wrongful Death and to Touchstone for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Wrongful Death? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
The
Jury Master
Warner Books (Hardcover), March 2006
ISBN-10: 0-44657869-X (044657869X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-44657869-1 (9780446578691)
Wrongful
Death
Touchstone (Hardcover), April 2009
ISBN-10: 1-4165-9100-1 (1416591001)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-9100-9 (9781416591009)
Bodily
Harm
Touchstone (Hardcover), May 2010
ISBN-10: 1-4165-9296-2 (1416592962)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-9296-9 (9781416592969)
Omnimystery keywords for Wrongful Death ...
Location(s) referenced: Seattle, Washington.
