One Dead Judge: A Tale of Ocean City

by Preston Pairo

Ah, summer. Dallas Henry's favorite time of year—except for this week when the State Bar Association holds its annual convention in Dallas' beach town, and hundreds of his former legal brethren arrive like a red tide of litigating menace. Dallas has been giving away free rooms at his one-star motel to keep any lawyers from checking in, but suddenly he has bigger problems. Cranky Judge Crenshaw calls Dallas in the middle of the night and claims someone's trying to kill him, but won't say who he thinks it might be, or why. Convinced the judge is pulling another of his infamous practical jokes, Dallas plays along, only the next day Crenshaw turns up dead and doughy prosecutor Brent Bannister claims Dallas' car was the murder weapon. Then Dallas' old law school girlfriend shows up, followed by a TV advertising lawyer with bad hair plugs, a felon with bad aim, a bag of steamed crabs, someone digging holes in the judge's back yard, piles of deer pooh, the dead judge's reclusive ex-partner, a former courthouse worker who gets three pension checks, a real estate tycoon hell bent on building a new golf course, and a convention center full of lawyers who want to make Dallas "Attorney of The Year" for running over Judge Crenshaw. Dallas' helpers, meanwhile, aren't helping. Francophile Herbie's massive origami creation is taking over the motel's front desk. Misdemeanant Dash is stealing limos from foreign diplomats. And Susan still isn't the love of Dallas' life. Who would have thought one dead judge could cause such a commotion? A satiric whodunit from the sunny beaches of Ocean City, Maryland. This Ebook version of One Dead Judge contains extensive revisions from the hardback edition of the same title—so much so, in fact, as to be an almost completely new book. __

299 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 21, 2016

About the author

If you can't be at the beach, the next best experience is writing (or reading) about it.

I started out writing crime novels around the time I became a criminal attorney. Then wrote a romance (perhaps as an emotional antidote) after taking on divorce cases. A humorous mystery, set in Ocean City, Maryland where I spent summers as a kid and later got married, has popped up now and again.

So not all of my books are the same. Crossing genres is great fun--almost as much as riding waves.

For more information, or some free reading material, please visit me at: www.prestonpairo.com

Reviews

[Don Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Pairo's romantic drama, "The Builder" first, I didn't know what to expect from this Action/Comedy/Lawyer story. Whatever shards of expectation that I might have had were shattered by the end of the first chapter...in a very, very good way! His characters are funny, witty (most of them anyway, the others are lawyers), and the plot has more twists than a western Maryland back road.

I couldn't help but hear echoes of Carl Hiaasen zaniness, in a completely authentic mid-Atlantic way. In fact, Pairo is easily the mid-Atlantic version of Hiaasen! He points out in ways that only those that have 'been there done that,' the congestion and craziness of Ocean City, Maryland in the summer, and then throws a wild murder story into the middle of it. Did I say murder? There are hundreds of lawyers in a convention there, so maybe it's not 'murder.' Maybe 'justifiable homicide' or perhaps a 'tragic accident' or maybe even 'grounds for civil litigation.' The only thing that the lawyers can agree on is that they'll have another round, and more crab cakes. Don't worry, their clients will pay for it all.

This is a hilarious romp through the sand, sun, and bars of Ocean City. If you are looking for a fun read, this is it!