Murder on Appeal

About the Book

In this unusual and exciting legal thriller the action shifts from the trial court to the appellate arena where the judges not the lawyers are the featured performers.  Justice Cameron Scott is considered the best appellate judge in the state – and quite possibly on the way to the Supreme Court.  Then he is handed the “Penthouse Killer” case.  This serial killer was convicted of murdering six of San Angelo’s richest and most powerful citizens then leaving notes accusing them of “crimes against the people.”  Something in the record convinces Justice Scott the defendant didn’t commit these murders and to suspect a coverup by the current governor and one of his fellow judges.  But he knows his colleagues will consider what he found to be only “harmless error.”  At the same time, judicial ethics bar him from personally investigating the case.  How he chooses to work around that prohibition endangers his career, his son’s life, and as the investigation moves closer to the real killer, his own survival.  All this is at stake in a final showdown before the appellate court where Justice Scott pits his skills as an artful interrogator against an unsuspecting member of a powerful and dangerous conspiracy.

About the Author

Holmes Marshall is the pseudonym of a person who has worked at an appellate court for many years. He is the author of several successful nonfiction books, but this is his first work of fiction.