Synopsis

Jason Brinkman’s career at a big Los Angeles law firm is over because he refused to sleep with his senior partner. He’s moved to sleepy Sea Cliff on California’s Central Coast to begin again. He has a struggling solo law practice and a promising romance. When kids discover a body in a storm drain, his new life begins to unravel.

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Excerpt

Jason was about to open the e-mail from The Totten Trust Bank of New York when he heard pounding on his office door. He went to it, flipped the lock, and stood aside.

Rory stormed in, eyes burning and face flushed. She ripped off her baseball cap. “Brinkman, you fucker, you’re trying to screw me out of my father’s money!”

“I’m not trying to—”

“My partner’s an FBI agent—”

“I don’t want your—”

“And the FBI will hit you like a ton of bricks if you steal a dime!”

Rory was four inches shorter than Jason, but stretched on her toes, she was very much in his face. Her whole body shook and her cheeks turned scarlet as she raged at him. “Goddamn shyster lawyer…stealing my money…I trusted you…I earned it…you can’t imagine what I went through…he owes me….” Specks of spittle flew from her mouth. Her breath, normally sweet, reeked of stomach acid.

Jason let her rant until she ran out of steam. When she finally took a breath, he said, “I was dog-tired yesterday afternoon. Up all the night before, and then had an early court appearance in Santa Luisa. I went home and slept.” He put both hands on her shoulders and pushed down hard, until she stood flat-footed. Holding her at arm’s length, he said, “Anyway, we both hold the keys to the puzzle, as you point out.”

The tension ebbed slowly from her body and her usual air of self-confidence began to return. “Like Frodo and Gollum in Lord of the Rings,” she muttered. She wore a black warm-up suit and running shoes, and unlike the other times he’d seen her, seemed unconcerned about her appearance. Although he was certain he was free from her spell, he couldn’t deny she was stunning even in drab athletic gear.

He beckoned her to follow him around the bookcase to his desk. “I did start to contact some of the banks,” he began as they walked.

“What?” she shrieked. “You just told me—”

“Christ, Rory, will you let me explain! I wanted to see what kind of responses I’d get.” He turned to face her, speaking patiently. “Banks have so many privacy restrictions these days, and we don’t have anything to prove we’re entitled to access Geraldo’s accounts.”

“Uh-huh,” she said with an edge in her voice, “so what’d you find out? Anything useful?”

“Pretty much what I expected. We need a password or some kind of authorization. Here. See for yourself.” He gave her his handwritten list.

“Your writing’s too hard to read.”

“Alright, I’ll translate. The first one is Commerce Bank, and they require a power of attorney or a court order. The next is Farmers & Mechanics….” He read the rest of the list.

“There’s no way Geraldo gave you power of attorney or any kind of authorization.”

“You’re right. No way.”

“How long will it take to get a court order?”

“A couple of weeks after I file the papers.”

“Why so long? I can’t…don’t want to wait forever.”

“It may be longer,” he said. “I heard the Probate Judge just retired.”

“Well, why can’t we figure out the passwords? We have Geraldo’s alphanumeric code.”

“That’s ten characters,” Jason said, thinking out loud. “Passwords can be any length, but they’re usually six or eight, and we don’t know which six or eight he’d have used for any particular bank. Or, whether he’d have mixed numbers and letters, or capitals and lower case. Or, used fewer characters.”

“Can’t we just try different combinations?”

“Yeah, we could try that…maybe on one of the banks that doesn’t seem important…but you probably get just one bite of the apple in this kind of situation.”

“You mean where strangers are trying to get information about a dead person’s account?”

“Exactly.”

Review

This mystery has many twists and turns that kept me wondering what could possibly happen next, who killed Geraldo, and would Jason keep his ethics and morals in check.

The book is peppered with a variety of characters from the despicable to endearing, but mostly on the former end of the scale. However, all of these characters make the book flow and adds dimension to the storyline. Plus, it gives you a lot of suspects!

I felt for Jason and everything that he was going through with his soon to be ex, the woman he was dating, his law practice, and just life in general. He knows what he wants and doesn’t want, and in the end, will he get it or will he do the right thing? This is one of those moments where you have no idea what I’m talking about and I can’t really say much more because it would spoil the ending.

The story does take some time to reveal all of the details, yet the book leaves us hanging without any real resolution. We know how the murder happened and a few other details, but it left me with more questions than answers. Perhaps the author was setting this up to have a sequel?

There could be some triggers if that sort of thing has an effect on you when reading from child pornography and drug use are two main ones.

We give this book 3 1/2 paws up.

About the Author

Jack Cameron is a retired lawyer who lives on California’s Central Coast with his wife and two cats. He spent his career writing about the crises or issue of the moment and now writes mysteries and short stories. He always imagined having a solo law practice in a small town like Sea Cliff, the setting for The Storm Drain Murder.

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