The Mystery Books of Gene Grossman: Summaries with the Author's Comments Read online

  He was quite surprised to learn that I didn’t drive a Hummer, but I took that as a compliment because it showed me that my book’s character became real to him as he read the book, and thought that his large vehicle was an extension of my personality as a writer... but it wasn’t. That’s what fiction writers do: we make stuff up.

  *****

 

  #5: …Until Proven Innocent

  [Winner of the 2011 Global eBook Award – in the Fiction: Mystery Category]

  Tony Edwards, A marina dock neighbor of Peter and Suzi, is charged with murder.

  Unfortunately, he is a suspended police officer with a known dislike for people who are the color of his alleged victim. He’s also the subject of many citizen complaints for using excessive force in the minority community.

  At Suzi’s request, Tony has taught her how to help him re-load his target practice ammunition, also giving the little girl a basic course in ballistics. When a local black movie producer who Tony was working as technical assistant on a cop show for gets killed, Suzi talks Peter into handling Tony’s defense… which doesn’t look too good because he was arrested at the scene of the murder with his gun still smoking.

  Along the way, Peter once again gets involved with who he thinks might be ‘Miss Right,’ represents a 500-pound woman who is being discriminated against, uncovers a white supremist militant organization, and also stumbles onto a group of people who are pirating DVD copies of recently released major motion pictures.

  Peter’s ex-wife, District Attorney Myra Scot, makes a mistake when she subpoenas little Suzi to come and testify as a prosecution witness against the defendant, Suzi’s friend Tony.

  Being the devious little girl that she is, Suzi once again manages to find a way to get her huge dog Bernie into the courtroom and makes a bold attempt solve the mystery and destroy Myra’s case in court, resulting in the District Attorney’s office never wanting to subpoena Suzi again.

  [Author’s comment]

  The ‘guest star’ in this book (name slightly changed) actually was a good friend of mine, and LAPD officer who owned a sailboat on the dock where my boat was berthed: he was who the Tony Evans character was based on... but in real life he was not an accused murderer.

  One of the reasons I wanted to use him is because at least one scene in the book is very close to the truth of what happened to us one evening. When you read the book, pay attention to what happened to us in the Mexican restaurant... except for the gunfire and killing.

  A lot of the action that takes place in the book takes place in a small commercial building I used to own in Venice California, in which I built a small sound stage that production companies rented to shoot commercials in.

  And I would feel remiss not mentioning getting some valuable assistance from Jack Valenti, who at that time was the longtime president of the Motion Picture Association of America. With the cooperation of him and his staff, I was granted access to several movie theaters for research that helped me with the portions of the book that dealt with the unlawful pirating of motion pictures.

  *****

  #6: The Common Law

  Peter Sharp encounters a client with amnesia, who not only can’t tell Peter what his own name is, but who also has absolutely no recollection of the crime he is charged with committing. In lieu of his memory, Peter’s obtains video surveillance footage that establishes his client’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The usual crew also gets involved, including Peter’s close friend Stuart, Jack Bibberman the investigator, Laverne the ‘amorous house-boat lady’, and Stuart’s employees Vinnie and Olive – and last but not least, little Suzi B. and her big Saint Bernard.

  The law firm is still operating from their 50-foot Grand Banks trawler yacht in Marina del Rey, California… the vessel that Peter still doesn’t know how to drive.

  One way or another each of Peter’s cases winds up being a conflict with his ex-wife Myra, who is the county’s chief prosecutor. He also may be more closely involved with FBI Special Agent in Charge Bob Snell than before, as they share a dangerous high-speed situation on a winding road.

  [Author’s comment]

  A good friend of mine is a retired M.D. who gave me some very helpful information about what form amnesia that attorney Peter Sharp’s client was suffering from. My friend was an ophthalmologist, so I ‘snuck’ him into the story as a medical person named Doctor Eidoch (pronounced eye-doc).

  As an aside, the FBI agent in the book (and mentioned in the previous paragraph) was based on a real FBI Special Agent that I worked with on a federal case... and during which time we became friendly and he asked if I would consider joining ‘the bureau.’

  I was flattered that he received authorization to recruit me for the FBI, but at that period of time in my life I was still in my late twenties and my law practice was starting to take off, so I respectfully declined his invitation.

  Earlier this year (2013) I happened to see his name in a press release: now retired from the Bureau, he was being appointed to a job at some high-level security agency. I sent him an email at the company and it reached him: he replied, and we briefly renewed our friendship.

  Another point of interest is that the federal criminal case we were both involved with had several defendants, one of whom was represented by a tall, skinny red-headed guy with an Afro haircut. After the trial was over I also lost touch with him, but more than 20 years later I saw his name and picture in the newspaper: it was Oscar Goodman, former mob lawyer and elected mayor of Las Vegas.

  Moral of the story: unlike the television legal dramas, opposing sides don’t hate each other: quite often they regularly appear against each other in court and can also be quite friendly with each other outside of court.

  *****

  #7: The Magician’s Legacy

  In this seventh adventure, Suzi decides that she wants to study magic. Unfortunately, her teacher is the main suspect in what appears to be an ‘impossible’ crime… the shooting of a man in his completely locked ‘safe room.’

  In order for Suzi to clear her magic teacher of liability for this crime, she must convince Peter to handle the case, which he does under one condition: Suzi must help him by solving the mystery of this locked-room murder. Her task is made difficult because all events took place in a secure ‘panic room,’ with steel doors in place, and no windows.

  Somehow, the alleged murderer is believed to have committed the crime and successfully escaped from a room that could only later be opened by a crew using blowtorches. Suzi is especially motivated to solve this enigma when she learns that an attorney who she dislikes may be involved.

  [Author’s comment]

  One of my all-time favorite types of thriller is a special genre called the locked-room mystery, in which there is seemingly no way possible for anyone to have entered, killed the victim, and exited some sort of locked area (a room, boat, vehicle, etc.).

  I tried especially hard to create the ‘mother’ of all locked-room mysteries in this adventure, and to my pleasant surprise have been told that it’s the best locked-room mystery of the century.

  A good friend of mine named Jack is a successful building contractor back in Chicago [he’s also the person I based Peter Sharp’s investigator Jack Bibberman on], so I sent him a galley proof of the book so he could see what type of ‘safe’ room I created for this puzzling story.

  After he read the book I called to ask him what he thought of how I constructed the plot, the solution, and all the behind-the-scenes secrets. My main concern was whether or not he fully understood the solution, because quite often an author may skip some steps, believing that they are so obvious that every reader will get them and they need no explanation.

  Jack let me know that he understood the whole story quite well, but didn’t like it. When I asked why he didn’t like the book, in true building contractor form he responded “the building codes wouldn’t let you construct a room like that.”

  Once again I was required to remind a reader
that these books I write are fiction.

  *****

  #8: The Reluctant Jurist

  There’s a mini flu epidemic going around in Los Angeles and it has especially taken its toll among Superior Court Judges in Santa Monica, who all seem to have been infected at the same conference they attended.

  Peter has been ‘drafted’ to fill in as a temporary judge for some civil matters, but winds up getting stuck hearing a big criminal trial involving a previous attorney as the defendant… the same attorney who Peter crossed swords with in a previous situation.

  Suspense enters the picture when Peter’s legal ward Suzi fails to appear as guest of honor at her own birthday party, and every local state and Federal peace officer in California wants to locate her.

  This is the second adventure that Peter and Suzi B. have been involved in where Suzi’s Saint Bernard may be partly responsible for a successful conclusion.

  [Author’s comment]

  There’s a ‘frisky’ female judge in this story who creates some situations for Peter that provide a bit of comic relief in the book, and once again there was an actual person [a female judge in Van Nuys California] who was my inspiration for this book’s female judge character.

  The real judge’s main vice wasn’t sex, it was alcohol: but a judge with a vice is still a judge with a vice... and as previously mentioned: I write fiction... that means I make things up.

  *****

  #9: The Final Case

  Suzi dislikes a certain devious attorney who Peter keeps coming up against.

  When Peter’s new romantic interest invites him to a cocktail party, Suzi and the other guests are shocked by a loud noise down the hall, coming from their host’s study.

  Other guests at the party include the chief of police, mayor, and district attorney, who unanimously conclude that the dead body they discover is the result of a suicide. Even Suzi is inclined to go along with their conclusion… until she learns that the devious attorney she dislikes may be involved in handling some legal matters for the deceased.

  Suzi won’t let go of this one. Against everyone’s advice, she keeps working to prove her suspicions about that devious attorney and his connections to what Suzi believes must have been murder.

  [Author’s comment]

  This story is a slight variation on the locked-room genre: it’s an open room down the hall from where a lot of people are having a party. Everyone hears the gunshot but when they reach the room, the victim has apparently committed suicide seconds before they got there. People in the hall attest to the fact that nobody entered or left the room that the victim was in before or after the gunshot was heard.

  There are several sub-genres in the mystery field, and two of the main types are the Who-Dunnits, and the How’d-They do-it type. Most crime procedurals you see are the who-dunnit type, but Peter Falk’s Columbo broke the mold and adopted the style used by Dostoyevsky in his Crime and Punishment, in which we know right from the beginning who probably ‘dunnit:’ the main problem is how is the lead mystery-solver going to catch him?

  Another popular device I utilized in this book is the bringing back of an occasional arch-enemy of the series’ main hero.

  The most popular stories have used this device: Superman had his Lex Luthor; Sherlock Holmes had his Professor Moriarty, and the Road Runner had his Wylie Coyote... so why shouldn’t little Suzi have her own special antagonist? Now she does... and he’ll appear again in a future book in the series.

  *****

  #10: an Element of Peril

  In the tenth Peter Sharp Legal Mystery, Peter faces a double task: defending a person who is charged with murder, and also trying to locate the missing victim, who was allegedly killed in a completely locked room.

  Somewhere behind the tangled mess of a downward-spiraling celebrity starlet, a battling married couple, a missing currency trader and a disappearing corpse, attorney Peter Sharp and his legal ward Suzi must find where the truth lies.

  As in the past, while Peter’s client’s trial nears, Suzi fails to come up with any workable solution that can save Peter from certain defeat and humiliation in court.

  You’ll be sitting on the edge of your chair as you see the courtroom drama that takes place during the last few minutes of the trial.

  [Author’s comment]

  Once again it looks like a variation of the locked-room mystery, but this time nothing is what it seems to be, no matter how many witnesses claim to have seen what went on.

  Shortly before writing this book I had the pleasure of meeting two very special boat-owning neighbors of mine here in the marina: J.P. Dejoria [owner of Patrón Tequila and Paul Mitchell Hair Care, and his close friend and associate Chris Shaffer], so I decided [with his permission] to use one of J.P.’ products as an integral part of the solution to this mystery.

  Unfortunately (or fortunately), I’m a non-drinker, so I refused J.P.’s generous offer of a case of his finest bottles of Patrón Tequila after I converted Peter Sharp’s margarita-drinking habit to a Patrón Tequila margarita-drinking habit. But that’s what friends do for each other.

  *****

  #11: A Good Alibi

  In Latin, the word “alibi” literally means “somewhere else,” and to any person charged with a crime, it is an extremely valuable asset to have because it can mean the difference between an acquittal and a conviction.

  However, just having an alibi isn’t enough: it has to stand up to scrutiny, because any good prosecutor knows that breaking an alibi and proving it was fraudulently concocted can lead a sure-thing conviction. In this eleventh adventure of the Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, Peter is drawn into a role he never thought he’d be playing – that of a prosecutor, being brought in as for the singular purpose of trying to break a defendant’s apparently ‘airtight’ alibi.

  [Author’s comment]

  In the Reluctant Jurist [Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #8], attorney Peter Sharp briefly stepped out of his defense roll to fill in as a judge during a flu epidemic that afflicted many members of the bench.

  In this story, Peter crosses sides to help the prosecution try and break a suspect’s seemingly iron-clad alibi.

  Another side-plot in this book is little Suzi’s acquisition of her first automobile! Notwithstanding the fact that she’s too young to drive a car, and even if she was old enough, she wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals.

  Nevertheless, she buys a car... but she’s got her own agenda, and this time it has something to do with a car-theft ring that she wants to put out of business.

  *****

  #12: Legally Dead

  Nobody likes a killer, but when you’re a trained professional called upon to do a job, you have to put your personal feelings on hold.

  When attorney Peter Sharp’s former wife Myra calls to ask a favor, he finds it difficult to refuse her, because any occasion to work with her is always a pleasure for him. The favor that District Attorney Myra asks is for Peter to represent a client in court who wants to plead guilty to a crime. A plea bargain the defendant agreed to is already in place.

  Peter agrees to the contemplated one-hour of work as a court-appointed defense attorney and makes the court appearance. But when the case is called, the surprises start, and don’t stop until the unexpected end of this twelfth of the Legal Mystery series, during which time Peter gets his first opportunity to defend a dead person charged with murder.

  [Author’s comment]

  One thing that defense attorneys hate is a surprise, especially when you have difficulty in controlling a client when it comes to what he or she is supposed to say in court when offering a plea, to bring about some satisfactory result of a plea bargain.

  This once happened to me on the trial date of a multi-defendant federal jury trial, during which my client wouldn’t properly admit to his crime pursuant to the plea agreement, and we were forced to start the trial... and I didn’t prepare for trial and didn’t even bring a legal pad to court with me that day.

  Needless
to say, it was an unpleasant experience for me. I lost 7 pounds due to stress during the first four days of that trial.

  *****

  #13: How to Rob a Bank

  Over the years, every mystery writer worth his salt has tried to come up with one that tops all the rest: the secret compartments, doors locked from the inside, confused timelines, etc., etc. It's all been tried over and over. Jacques Futrelle set the standard with his Problem in Cell 13, and John Dickson Carr raised it a bit in his The Hollow Man, but there haven't been many fine stumpers since then... until now.

  Mystery writer Gene Grossman has been a fan of locked room mysteries for many years, so when he created this 13th Peter Sharp Legal Mystery, it was natural for him to want to include what may be one of the most baffling locked room mystery of them all – but maybe with exception of Book #7: The Magician’s Legacy.

  In this story, a magician is writing a book entitled “How to Rob a Bank,” and to get publicity for its upcoming publication, the author decides to show the public that he really knows of what he writes – so he plans to rob the bank he regularly does business with.

  Unfortunately, things don’t work out the way he planned, and it takes little Suzi to solve this baffling mystery for all of the adults.

  [Author’s comment]

  What can be better than a locked room mystery? A locked panic room mystery.

  What can be better than a locked panic room mystery? A locked bank vault mystery.

  If you follow my logic, you can see where I’m going: the more secure and isolated the scene of the crime is, the tougher it will be for the people in the book (and the readers) to figure out how the criminal pulled it off... and how creative the crime-solver will have to be to figure it out.

  As mentioned in one of my previous comments, this book gave me an opportunity to insert quite a few of my friends [with either their first and/or last names slightly changed, but still recognizable].

  This story should also give the readers an idea of how far a desperate author will go to get some publicity for his story (present company excepted, unless you think offering this catalog of titles and comments free of charge is an act of desperation). Please be kind.