Bøger af David Crump

The football game is tied. It's in sudden death overtime. And that's when three Islamic extremists trigger an explosion that kills over 100 innocent spectators. The men who did it are promptly caught and charged with capital murder, but everyone knows that there are more guilty people behind the act. There are banks, or foundations, or governments who fronted this terrorism. Terrorists need money. Families of the victims ask attorney Robert Herrick-the "Lawyer for the Little Guy"-to bring the financiers to justice. It's a tough claim, and he declines . . . but eventually he's persuaded to take the case. Nothing about this lawsuit is easy, from preparing the court papers, to discovering who did it and how, to presenting enough proof at trial. Herrick will have to use all of his skills to have a fighting chance at making his claim, and-once the terrorists target him too-he'll have to scramble to save his own life. ". . . A fascinating international legal thriller . . . penetrating the world of a foreign legal system and fashioning a tale that only a legal expert could tell." - Gary Taylor, Pulitzer Prize Nominee Journalist; Author of true-crime bestseller Luggage by Kroger "Sudden Death Overtime . . . demonstrates that a great lawyer is a skilled storyteller. Crump makes it real, through lessons learned in the school of hard knocks-which may be the best law school in the country." - Lynne Liberato, Past President, State Bar of Texas "David Crump . . . knows his courtroom procedure and trial tactics. I like reading his legal fiction, which has the authentic ring of truth, but [in his job as a law professor] he would scare the hell out of me in class." - Michael A. Olivas, Professor of Law and Former President, American Association of Law Schools

Robert Herrick is the lawyer for the little guy in Houston, Texas. His courtroom experiences have been realistically recounted in David Crump's previous novels CONFLICT OF INTEREST, THE HOLDING COMPANY, AND MURDER IN SUGAR LAND. Now Herrick faces an international enemy of unbridled arrogance and ruthlessness: the drug kingpin El Jefe, whose petty grudge against a local reporter was expressed in a family bloodbath. Can a civil lawsuit against El Jefe's American bank bring some measure of justice? A mass murder wipes out three generations of a family, all hacked with machetes. It's a horrific crime, and obviously drug-related. But it's not possible that the perpetrators all live south of the border, because a drug enterprise needs partners in the United States for money laundering, financing, and transport. The survivors want justice. Robert Herrick is their choice to get it. He tells them No, because lawyers aren't trained to locate defendants who come and go like shadows-or to try lawsuits against drug lords in foreign countries. But circumstances and sympathies get the best of Herrick. He finds himself, quickly-and against the protests of his family-handling the strangest case of his life, drawn into a web of international intrigue that entangles him with the National Security Agency, the Mexican Army, the courts of two nations, and hired assassins. All the while, he's attempting to focus on the usual parts of the legal process: pretrial papers, deposition questioning, jury selection, and trial. The mundane gears of law don't seem up to the task of bringing to justice drug kingpins and their enabling American banks. Just when Herrick thinks the stakes can't get any higher, they do-and he realizes that he will have to fight with primitive energy if he wants to win this case . . . or if he wants to save his family from . . . THE TARGET DEFENDANT.

New from the author of CONFLICT OF INTEREST and THE HOLDING COMPANY: Law professor David Crump's latest courtroom drama features Houston trial lawyer Robert Herrick, in a case that hits close to home. When his paralegal Brianna Edwards gets arrested for hiring a hit man, Herrick has to work the law and reality of murder for hire in the Lone Star State-in the toney city of Sugar Land, no less. Pitted against the toughest prosecutor around, who has marching orders to stamp out any threat of violent crime in the affluent community, Herrick will have to use all his courtroom wits and experience to make legal sense of the tangled law that Brianna faces. "Absolutely superb! David Crump describes the reality of a trial better than anyone. After 30 years as a trial lawyer and 14 years as a trial judge, I have had the same experiences. And Crump nails it. This is a book you simply cannot put down." - Judge R. Terence Ney Past President, State Bar of Virginia "David Crump knows his material and characters well! He has written yet another excellent legal thriller." - David Beck Past President, State Bar of Texas "Crump steers his readers through our judicial system as only a practitioner and professor of law is able to do! This is a fascinating story crafted with characters who are so vivid and real that you are faced with the terrible conflict of not wanting to put it down, while realizing it will end too soon if you don't."- Bill Balleza News Anchor, NBC-TV Channel 2 "Each of David Crump's novels leaves me looking forward to the next. His characters are each so unusual, they are almost Faulkner-esque. I highly recommend this one!" - T. Gerald Treece Legal Commentator, CBS-TV Channel 11 "The story takes you behind the scenes and behind the bench. It's a fun courtroom drama in classic Crump style...." - D. Hull Youngblood Past Chair, Board of Directors, State Bar of Texas "This is the most realistic courtroom novel you'll find today, so grab your seat at the defense table and watch the legal chess match unfold!" - Gary Taylor Pulitzer Prize Nominee Journalist; Author of true-crime bestseller Luggage by Kroger

The offshore oil platform known as the Emerald Rose is an explosion waiting to happen. And just as surely, it's a blizzard of lawsuits waiting to happen. Robert Herrick is "the lawyer for the little guy." Against his better judgment, he finds himself drawn into representing more than a hundred plaintiffs suing the Emerald Petroleum Company. Careless managers have killed dozens of innocent victims by taking risks like replacing drilling fluids with sea water. But the other side is represented by a former street fighter named Jimmy Coleman. He's the head of litigation at the mega-firm of Booker and Bayne, where he commands an army of associates who can find arguments to block the plaintiffs' claims at every turn. In depositions, in pretrial motions, and even in filing the lawsuit papers, the plaintiffs' lawyer finds himself outmanned and outmaneuvered - all while he's being secretly hunted by the infamous drug lord El Raton. This was one time when perhaps Robert shouldn't have listened to his wife Maria, who thought that he was just right for this case. Robert soon learns that he will need to fight with all his strength if he is to save even a chance for his clients - and if he is to save his own life and his partners, because of the case of ... The Emerald Rose.

The buzzer sounds from inside the jury room to signal a verdict. A sharp, unnatural noise-full of promise and danger. But when the judge reads the verdict, it isn't what anyone has been expecting. Robert Herrick is the lawyer for William Grant, who is badly injured. But now, Robert's chances of helping his client seem nonexistent, even though the jury has rewarded two other plaintiffs from the same accident with huge damages. The pain of this impending defeat is overwhelming. But Robert forces himself to keep fighting for William Grant. The lawyer on the other side is Jimmy Coleman, a no-holds-barred former gang member. Jimmy now is head of litigation at the mega-firm Booker & Bayne, where his army of associates can find arguments to justify almost any dirty trick. The lawyer for the two successful plaintiffs is a lazy hack who has never done his job right . . . but somehow in this case, he's won. In an unusual way. Meanwhile, this bet-the-company lawsuit finds management plotting together with the union to get Robert Herrick off the case, by any means necessary. He will need to fight with primitive energy if he is to keep himself alive-and if he wants to salvage anything for his client, because he finds himself in an uphill battle against . . . THE JUDAS LAWYER. Sixth in the Robert Herrick Series by law professor David Crump.

If in doubt fall on your arse. That was the mantra of Fred Karno: acrobat, comedian, writer, music hall impresario, film producer and the undisputed king of slapstick. From his famous nursery of nonsense, the 'Fun Factory', the Guv'nor conquered the world, built an empire, made millions and lost the lot. In the process he discovered and trained the early twentieth century's greatest comedians: Will Hay, Robb Wilton, Sandy Powell, Syd Walker, Frank Randle, Max Miller, Billy Bennett, the Crazy Gang, and most significantly of all Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin. He pioneer physical sketch comedy and developed the raw material that Hollywood later fashioned into the finest comics of silent film. The phrase 'It's like Fred Karno's Army' entered the lexicon to describe any chaotic situation, but his extraordinary legacy is largely forgotten, lost in the mists of time and sullied by a tarnished personal reputation. This book tells the remarkable story of the man behind the myth and reveals Karno's huge contribution to comedy and popular culture - an impact which still resonates today.

"If you haven't read poetry since high school, now is the time to start!"--Richard AldermanKTRK Channel 13 (ABC Television)"Beethoven...Baseball...Buicks...[and] Elway.... These sonnets...enjoy the world!"--Patricia YongueProfessor of English, University of Houston"[E]xtraordinary... What fun these poems are!"--Bryan GarnerGarner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage(Oxford University Press)"[These] meticulously crafted sonnets rocket exuberantly from the ancient world to cyberspace, unsettling the mind...[and] surprising the heart."--Carolyn Wilkerson BellSusan Duval Anderson Professor of English,Randolph-Macon Woman's College