Gerry Spence's "Half-Moon and Empty Stars" relates the gripping love stories of two women -- Charlie Redtail's mother and his woman, Willow -- who struggle, each in her own way, to save Charlie from the gas chamber. It is the story of brothers, half-blooded Arapahoe twins: Charlie, who goes the way of the Native American, and Billy, who becomes a wealthy Wall Street banker, resulting in a conflict of cultures that explodes in murder. Charlie is dragged to trial in a small, prej- udiced backwater Wyoming town, a trial that erupts into an astonishing courtroom drama that only Gerry Spence, with his intimate knowledge of murder trials, could tell.
Can Abner Hill, a deeply principled small-town lawyer who has fallen in love with Charlie's mother, fight the state's perjured testimony with his own false witnesses to save Charlie Redtail? Which is more important, the life of a "breed Indian, a dog-eater," or the economic betterment of the town and the political career of the governor?
With a superb sense of drama and an intimate knowledge of how the court system really works in the face of power and politics, Gerry Spence has crafted a sensational legal thriller that is also a compelling family drama. This is a remarkable first novel that penetrates deeply into the very roots of our lives and our system, that relentlessly probes life, death, justice, and, at last, the infinite power of love.
