The Mystery Books of Gene Grossman
Summaries, with the author’s comments
By Gene Grossman
Copyright Gene Grossman 2013
The 15-book Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries Series
And
The 5-book Suzi B. Mystery Series
From
Venice, California
All rights reserved
Introduction
I would like to take this opportunity to thank former President George W. Bush for the start of my writing career, because without his starting a war with Iraq, my series of Legal Mysteries might never have been written.
Being an avid boating enthusiast for many years, in 1981 I created the nautical video industry by writing, producing, directing and ‘starring’ in a 2-hour production entitled Celestial Navigation: Sextant Use and the Sun Noon Shot.
The program was quite successful, surely due in part to the fact that at that time there was absolutely no competition.
The next program was on Coastal Piloting: Navigating Within Sight of Land, and during the next 20 years I cranked out another 20 or 30 programs and did video operation guides for the new electronics that came on the marked (Loran, Sat-Nav, GPS, etc.).
The only time that boat owners take the time to watch videos about their favorite pastime is usually when there’s nothing else on television that interests them as much, so we sold quite a few videos during the next two decades – until something else caught their attention – and then the nautical video industry went directly into the dumper because during the first few months of 2003the whole world was watching television news to be sure they wouldn’t miss the beginning of our war against Iraq, which started in March of that year… and all of the press conferences, interviews and guessing when the war would start wound up being the best lead-in any television special could ever receive: and then the Iraq War debuted in March of 2003, to great ratings.
At that period of time I was still acting as order-filler and shipping clerk for the videos (already transitioning into the DVD format), and when people became transfixed with Iraq, there were almost no orders and I had plenty of time on my hands. Being a retired trial attorney, I finally had a chance to catch up on my reading of the types of books that got me interested in going to law school: legal thrillers – but to my dismay, discovered that the genre didn’t thrill me the way it used to when I was a law student. Spending those 20 years actually doing it instead of just reading about it must have jaded my thrill sensors. I thought that knowing a little more about what the attorneys did behind the scenes might be a little more interesting to readers.
Also at that time, television had a new crop of criminal procedural shows like CSI, and people seemed very interested in seeing what allegedly went on behind the scenes, so I thought that the same principle might apply to shows (or books, in my case) that revealed the same routine of procedures and at the same time educated people about the law, so I started outlining my first book… which ultimately was published with the title Single Jeopardy.
I found that writing my first book was a lot different than writing a screenplay, of which I had already written 13 of. First of all, you have to spend a lot more time with description, because the customers can’t see what you’re talking about, like they can with a movie.
Secondly, you can spend more time talking about what the characters are thinking: this is tough to do in a screenplay, because a full paragraph of internal thought is difficult to express with a mere expression.
The think to keep in mind is that when someone reads a book, in their mind they’re picturing the action and making their own movie. This means that even though decent descriptive material is required, you don’t want to overload the reader with too much – and conflict with the movie they’re watching as they read your book.
A big difference between feature films and episodic television drama is that with the TV show, you already know the characters: they don’t have to be introduced to you every week… but with a movie, a lot of time is spent in setting up the lead characters – and if you don’t have a well-known superstar like Tom Cruise appearing in a sequel to Mission Impossible, the first half of the movie would have to be devoted to creating his personality and motivations.
This let me to reason that if I was going to continue writing books, it might be a good idea to make them a series with the same characters continuing from book to book, with occasional guest star people popping up as antagonists, in the form of criminals and/or opposing attorneys.
As a lead in the books I was very careful to give him a name, because after deciding to make him a California attorney I was faced the with the problem of avoiding unintentionally using the name of an actual lawyer – of which there are more than 200,000 on the State Bar’s rolls.
I wound up borrowing the first and last names of two attorney friends of mine (without their knowledge): Peter Knecht and Lloyd Anthony Sharp. The result was my lead character Peter Sharp, whose name was not the same as any licensed attorney in California at that time.
Because many readers let me know that they found several other characters in the first book entertaining and wouldn’t mind seeing them make repeat performances in future books, my cast of characters was complete:
• A lead attorney [Peter Sharp] who was appointed legal guardian for a small girl;
• A cute little 12-year-old Chinese girl named Suzi, who is: a computer genius and able to solve the crimes before her legal guardian Peter;
• A 200-pound Saint Bernard (Bernie) that acts as Suzi’s personal assistant and bodyguard;
• Peter’s bitter ex-wife [Myra], who ultimately becomes elected to the position of District Attorney, bringing her into numerous conflicts with her ex-husband Peter , who is a defense attorney;
• An old entrepreneurial friend of Peter’s [Stuart] who comes up with a successful new business idea in every book – and one that usually figures in the solution of each book’s mystery.
Once the main lead and supporting cast were in place, I was able to experiment from book-to-book to see which new characters should be promoted to repeat characters in subsequent books… and the formula seemed to work quite well, because over the next ten years or so I was able to complete fifteen of the Peter Sharp Legal Mystery Series and then did a five-book spin-off of the Suzi B. Mysteries, in which Peter’s little legal ward started taking cases on her own, but ultimately drags the adults in to pull her out of any dangerous situation she may find herself in.
Peter and Suzi operate their modest law firm from the yacht that they live on, purchased after the successful settlement of some meaty cases… and naturally, named by Suzi
It’s a beautiful 50-foot Grand Banks Trawler Yacht in which the entire off-limits foreward stateroom suite is the private enclave of Suzi and Bernie.
The Suzi B.
When reading these books in the order they were written, which is not necessary because each one stands on its own, you might notice that Suzi has a little more dialogue in each successive book.
The reason for this is because I’ve personally never had a daughter, and it was a long and slow process that involved suggestions from two close friends, each with five daughters, giving me countless suggestions as to what a 12-year-old girl would say and how she might act in various situations.
Now that you’ve learned some of my writing secrets (like the pandering act of tossing in a cute little girl and a dog) to appease readers, I’d like to give you an extended summary of each of the 20 Mysteries, hopefully to get you interested in reading the
m in eBook or print form… and if you do read any of the books, please don’t hesitate to offer me a comment. I can be reached through my publisher’s email address that usually appears somewhere near the end of each book.
And also please be advised that on the publisher’s website www.LegalMystery.com there is a pdf link for you to read the first chapter of any book/s in the series, free of charge.
*****
A note from the publisher
We have a feeling that Mister Grossman may not have been a big supporter of our going to war in Iraq, but we do know for a fact that he was a very strong supporter of our troops over there in harm’s way.
As proof of his feelings of loyalty for our brave service members, he amazed us all by paying for us to send an entire pallet of brand-new books for their reading enjoyment whenever time and security permitted.
Here’s the brief notice posted on our website:
Magic Lamp Press is pleased to announce the donation of a complete pallet of The Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries (1,591 books) to our troops serving in the Middle East.
This donation was completed with the cooperation of Assist Our Troops, a Non-profit organization in Independence, Kentucky
* * * * *
The 15-book Peter Sharp Legal Mystery Series
www.LegalMystery.com
#1: Single Jeopardy
Very similar to a television series’ pilot episode, this first Peter Sharp Legal Mystery goes into much deeper detail about the characters and establishes them for the entire series.
They are briefly described in each of the following stand-alone books, because there is no continuation of plot from one book to the other, but you’ll appreciate the series much better if you read this one first.
It’s a little longer than the others, but you’ll enjoy the trip.
Starting out on a bright note, Attorney Peter Sharp has been wrongfully suspended from the practice of law and thrown out of the house by his soon-to-be ex-wife, a newly appointed deputy district attorney. As a result of the eviction, he’s forced to live in their back yard on an old, poorly wired, 40-foot Chris Craft cabin cruiser he’s restoring, that is in danger of burning up at any time.
The old backyard Chris Craft
Peter finally connects with former law-school classmate Melvin Braunstein, who arranges for him to have his old Chris Craft trucked to the Marina, launched and towed to a vacant boat slip on Melvin’s dock.
While trying to get his suspension matter cleared up, he acts as a paralegal for Melvin, and as the result of trying to help someone fill out some claim forms, he gets arrested for conspiracy to defraud an insurance company. His alleged co-conspirator, a doctor charged with murdering his own wife to be with a beautiful flight attendant, is about to discover that Peter is also seeing with her while the doctor is out of town.
As Peter fights to get his law license reinstated, he discovers the secrets behind two murders, a fatal plane crash, and who framed him with the State Bar.
Peter also gets involved in matters concerning sexual harassment, vexatious litigation, double jeopardy, and a ground-breaking case of a woman suing Peter’s friend Stuart for a new civil action: Negligent Nymphomania.
Learning how Peter and Suzi resolve all of these inter-connected crises, we see that some people are much cleverer than others.
[Author’s comment]
The new tort action of Negligent Nymphomania that I ‘created’ in this book is partially based on fact. My research turned up a similar case that happened about 50 years ago in San Francisco, when a cable car ran into a woman.
She sued the cable car company claiming that as a result of the accident she developed an insatiable desire for sex: a new emotional disorder she never experienced before. I read about this case quite some time ago, and if memory serves me correctly the cable car company settled out of court, paying her the sum of $25,000… but I would have liked to have been fly on the wall in the courtroom if instead of settling, if they had gone to trial instead of settling.
I have no idea show she would have gone about convincing a jury of her damages, but had I been practicing law back in those days, I would have considered volunteering my time as a defense lawyer for the cable car company because I’m sure that cross-examining that female plaintiff would have been the fascinating as an exercise of keeping a straight face, and probably changed my career from law to comedy writing.
*****
#2: …By Reason of Sanity
In his second Adventure, Attorney Peter Sharp gets retained to defend a man accused of capital murder. The only things making this case a little harder to defend than most others are that the client’s acts were captured on videotape, he confessed to the police, and he wants to plead guilty.
Although it is seemingly impossible for matters to get any worse, the District Attorney’s office has brought in a special prosecutor for the trial: Peter’s bitter ex-wife Myra... and she’s out for blood… Peter’s.
While he’s preparing for trial on the murder case, Peter is also hired to represent an insurance company, to defend it against a man who slipped and fell while inside a bank that was coincidentally robbed later that same day. Peter thinks the case would have died when the claimant was murdered, but at usual, he’s wrong.
In this adventure, while Peter is involved representing Vinnie, the prolific, peeing pornographer, he also helps solve several bank robberies by catching the entire gang, and makes the acquaintance of Miguel Herrera, who operates a private forensics business named 1(800)AUTOPSY – who is very helpful in this case, along with the assistance of his legal ward, the adorable thirteen-year-old Suzi and her huge Saint Bernard.
Miguel’s help earns him repeat appearances in several subsequent legal adventures.
[Author’s comment]
Quite often the old saying about truth being stranger than fiction is actually true. One of our local television stations ran a story about a man located here in Southern California (out near Glendale, in the San Gabriel Valley) who actually operated a business named 1(800)AUTOPSY.
I couldn’t resist calling the number to see if the story was true. Due to the numerous calls that must come in every day, all you get is an answering machine that asks for your contact information and offers a promise of a return call if you are a lawyer, police agency, insurance company, or some have some other relevant reason to be requesting their services.
I left a message about being an author and requested a meeting to see if I could get his permission to mention his business name/ telephone number, and in the books to expand his business to include many phases of criminal forensics. [His real name is not the one used in the books].
We would up having a pleasant lunch, at which time I learned he served as a diener (an autopsy assistant) for several municipal medical examiners before going out on his own. He graciously gave me the asked-for permission, but I politely declined an invitation to visit his ‘shop.’
*****
#3: A Class Action
In his third Adventure, Attorney Peter Sharp is retained to represent a man accused of murder by the planting of bombs in vehicles. The client is also suspected of being part of a conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States in an upcoming Fourth of July parade.
With the assistance of his legal ward Suzi, Peter cracks the case, identifies the real murderer, and at the same time solves the mystery of a dead body found in his friend Stuart’s automobile trunk... all while falling for a lesbian lawyer, winning a Will contest, breaking up a stolen car ring 4,000 miles away, and battling with his ex-wife, who with Peter’s help has been elected to the office of District Attorney… which will ultimately prove to Peter that no good deed goes unpunished.
In the adventure’s finale, Suzi miraculously manages to get ‘Bernie,’ her huge Saint Bernard into a courtroom, where she makes her first official court appearance, holds her first press conference, and becomes a local television hero – stealing the spotlight away from disappointed D.A.
Myra
[Author’s comment]
One of the burdens any fiction writer faces is the naming of new characters, so I decided to solve that problem by using names (slightly changed, but still recognizable) similar to those of my friends... with their permission, of course.
I was afraid that they would be concerned that their name might be used on a character whose personality or actions they didn’t approve of, but to my surprise I discovered that each one made a similar request: they all wanted to play the part of the murderer!
Several of the guys in my ‘old gang’ back in Chicago (not a criminal gang: a social one) finally got their wish when I wrote this third Peter Sharp adventure and used the slightly changed names of three of them as alleged bad guys in this book.
The response from the actual guys was so favorable, that in order to keep my promises to many of the others who didn’t make it into this book, others frequently popped up in subsequent adventures, and in Peter Sharp Legal Adventure #13, How to Rob a Bank, I threw a whole bunch of them in as good guys, bad guys, and even killed one or two off.
*****
#4: Conspiracy of Innocence
Suzi once again saves Peter’s case by finding the connection between two crimes that allegedly took place in different parts of the State, one of which Peter was arrested for. And once again, Peter falls for a woman who he thinks could really ‘be the one’ this time.
Peter’s ex-wife Myra must make the decision as to whether or not she should resign from prosecution of a case in which she may have a conflict of interest – Peter’s murder charge.
Everyone including Peter is sitting on the edge of their chairs as this double murder mystery comes to a shocking conclusion that involves a mafia hit man, revengeful drug dealers, a local police chief, and the ever-popular FBI.
[Author’s comment]
A friend of mine who is a much more successful author than me, having had one of his books made into a motion picture, (Diggstown, with James Woods, Lou Gossett Jr., and Bruce Dern) paid me a compliment: he read my book several days before our lunch meeting, and when leaving the restaurant he saw that the valet brought my car around and it wasn’t a big yellow Hummer like my main protagonist Peter Sharp drives in all the books. [Actually, I drive a sub-compact car that keeps a bad driver with poor depth perception like me from causing serious injuries to others].