A Criminal Appeal [Mass Market Paperback]

D.R. Schanker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2000

The truth doesn't always set you free. Sometimes it takes a damn good lawyer.

Big-boned, farm-bred, and fresh out of law school, Nora Lumsey has just landed a great job as an Indiana judge's law clerk. Then the Dexter Hinton case lands in her lap: An elderly white woman dies in a drive-by shooting. Two black kids are in the car. Dexter, ten years old and deaf, confesses. He gets fifty-five years.

Now the boy's distraught grandfather has written an appeal, and Nora's job is to draft the judge's denial. Turn the key and throw Dexter away.

That's her dilemma. The amateur appeal raises the wrong arguments. Nora knows the right ones. She also knows Dexter is innocent, convicted with lies and racism. Legally, she's forbidden to help. Morally, a big-boned woman is born to meddle...and perhaps risk everything for a young boy's life.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Ten-year-old Dexter Hinton's conviction in the drive-by shooting of elderly robbery target Cora Rollison was routine once the judge admitted the confession that Dexterd recanted after talking to his grandfather and guardian Carl Hinton. And now it looks as if the appeal Carl has painfully cobbled together will be denied with equal dispatch. Judge Carter Albertson, of the Indiana Court of Appeals, tells his first-year clerk Nora Lumsey that the verdict is to be affirmed without ado. But Nora, who overlooks no chance to reiterate that she's a big-boned woman used to locking horns with authority figures, looks deep enough into the record to notice that Carl Hinton is a neighbor of hers. Unwisely and incredibly, she drops by his house to introduce herself (though concealing her job), listen to his hard-luck story about his poor deaf grandson, and, eventually, come out fighting for Dex's release despite the threat of disbarment if either side she's working for ever finds out about the other. Beset on every front by inner-city gangstas who want the buck to stop with Dex and by big-city politicos who don't want a freed Dex to turn into another Willie Horton, Nora ends up risking more than she'd ever imagined when she said hello to Carl Hinton. Nora's harsh, uncompromising voice, something new and welcome in the genre, makes the extravagantly improbable premise of her first case worth the stretchthough it's a relief to find her headed to more suitable employment at the fade-out. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A fast-paced read."
--Mademoiselle

"First novelist Schanker wields a mighty pen...dramatic action and a powerful blend of race, religion, politics, and legal procedure."
--Library Journal

"Nora's harsh, uncompromising voice [is] something new and welcome in the genre."
--Kirkus Reviews

"The writing is superb...Nora is tough, loud, pushy and the perfect antidote for readers overdosed on the blood and guts of noir or the sugary niceness of today's cozies...Add D. R. Schanker to your list of favorite new authors."
--BookLine

"Brilliantly developed...authentic...Nora is one of the genre's best new characters."
--Harriet Klausner

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Dell (June 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440235812
• ISBN-13: 978-0440235811
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,603,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great thriller, better than Grisham and Turrow combined, September 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Criminal Appeal (Hardcover)

A wonderful mystery which keeps one guessing until the end. As a career prosecutor, I am often wary of stories where the main character is wrongly accused. Most such novels have little basis in reality and play to the general public's belief that the police intentionally seek to convict innocent persons. D.R. Schanker has taken this basic premise and written a believable, yet suspenseful novel.

Mr. Schanker, as a former law clerk, portrays the complexities of the appellate system with an accurate desciption of the many pitfalls of legal procedure and practice. I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking a fresh and exciting murder mystery.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Suspenseful Thriller, December 4, 2000

By 

Adrienne Miller (Lake County, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Criminal Appeal (Hardcover)

D.R. Schanker's debut novel "A Criminal Appeal" is a fast paced thriller that introduces the unforgettably big-boned law school grad & 1st year law clerk Nora Lumsey. As a clerk for an Indiana Court of Appeals judge, Ms. Lumsey is assigned to write an opinion confirming the murder conviction of 10-year-old Dexter Hinton. Dexter is a deaf, Black child who confessed to the crime of killing an elderly white woman in a drive-by robbery and shooting. After Dexter's conviction, his grandfather submits a type-written appeal to the Indiana Court of Appeals.

When the appeal and trial transcripts find themselves in Ms. Lumsey's hands with explicit instructions from the judge to affirm the conviction, the plot thickens. Nora discovers that Dexter's grandfather, Carl Hinton, lives two houses accross from her. Intrigued by the case, Nora begins to dive into the trial transcripts and starts to question the legality of Dexter's confession and conviction.

She comes face to face with Carl then finds herself invited to his church where he meets Owedia, Dexter's former teacher. Owedia is a sweet, kind woman who is as passionate to Dexter's plight as Carl. She slowly pulls Nora farther into Dexter's case. Against Nora's moral and ethical judgement she accompanies Carl on a trip to see Dexter, then she is pulled further into Dexter's world. The story introduces Nora to racial tensions, gang violence and penitentiary life as a juvenile. With pressure from the judge to hand in the affirming opinion, Nora must choose between her professional ethics and her emotional preservations.

In a gripping, suspenseful novel, D. R. Schanker keeps the reader guessing about the outcome. Each chapter leaves one wondering just what will Nora's next move be and how far will she go to follow her convictions? The author offers a realistic look into inner-city youth, and has simplified the legal appeals process as well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Realistic Legal Thriller, July 6, 2000

By 

S. McDonald (Southeastern PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Criminal Appeal (Hardcover)

The majority of the legal thrillers today contain most of the fiction in how the procedures of the law are followed. Not this book! It captured the frustration, tedium and politics of legal procedure *without being boring*. Mr. Schanker has provided the readers with a wonderful novel. It is gripping, thoughtful and moving. He brings home the realities of urban plight, racism and gangs. Though one battle may be won, the war is not over.