CAPITOL OFFENSE
William Bernhardt
Ballantine Books
Legal Thriller
ISBN: 9780345502995
Professor Dennis Thomas has been pushed to the limits of his sanity --- or maybe beyond. At least that’s what he wants a jury to believe. You see, he stands accused of killing Tulsa Police Detective Christopher Sentz. If you can believe it, he even sought the counsel of an attorney before the murder, inquiring about how to get away with it.
But first, let’s back up a little. When Thomas’s wife, Joslyn, an oncology doctor at an eminent Tulsa hospital, doesn’t make it home after work one night, Thomas becomes frantic. Something must be terribly wrong, he believes. He is panicked and spends every waking hour looking for her. And when he’s not out searching for Joslyn, he’s at the police station, pleading with the cops --- specifically Sentz --- to open an investigation into her disappearance. As Sentz continues to refuse time after time, Thomas grows increasingly incensed. He is sleep-deprived, worried sick about Joslyn, and angry as hell that the police will not help.
Eventually, the truth about Joslyn’s disappearance is discovered: she had been in an accident, trapped in her car, suffering, for a full week. She did not make it out alive. In this moment, Thomas loses not only his wife but his sanity as well. His grief, coupled with his frustration, sends him over the edge. He tries to attack Sentz, accusing him of murdering Joslyn. While he gets little satisfaction for his effort, he does receive a few nights in the local jail.
By now, most of us can sympathize with his situation: we’ve all felt that desire for revenge at one point in our lives. But it runs much deeper for Thomas at this point. He is driven by raw anguish and is seeking a way to settle the score…an eye for an eye as it were. He decides to enter the office of Senator Ben Kincaid, an attorney tending his law practice back home in Tulsa while there is a recess in Washington. Naturally, Kincaid declines to advise Thomas on ways to avoid prosecution if he were arrested on charges for a murder yet to be committed.
However, Thomas goes through with his plan to murder the neglectful detective and is soon arrested. Thomas claims innocence and begs Kincaid to represent him; against his better judgment, Kincaid takes the case. There is just something about Thomas that tugs at Kincaid’s heartstrings. But now, Kincaid has an impossible case, one that he cannot imaginably win, at least by conventional methods. It occurs to him that they have one hope: pleading temporary insanity, which will elevate the chances of winning from totally impossible to highly improbable. It is their only shot.
Meanwhile, the District Attorney is up for reelection, giving him a lot of incentive to win the case. Besides, cop killers are particularly odious human beings, especially in Oklahoma. No one likes them, not even in prison. Thomas’s future looks mighty bleak. To add to an already wretched outlook, the judge they will be trying the case before is about as unsympathetic a man as they could have found. He will make their lives more miserable than they already are.
Author William Bernhardt is a master at courtroom suspense. He puts witnesses on the stand, and the DA grills them to a charred finish. It looks like the defense doesn’t have a chance. But as we all know, juries are unpredictable. Anything can happen during the course of a trial. And in CAPITOL OFFENSE, it does. The book has more twists and turns than a roller coaster and will keep you guessing the whole way through. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
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