A thrilling adventure into the real world

of criminal law, a rich and serious

novel that deals with murder, the

moralityof justice and the perils of love,

Clifford Irving s Trial sets a new stan-

dard for courtroom fiction,

Warren Blackburn, Texas defense

lawyer, former star on the rise, has

returned to practice after a year s dis-

grace for perjury on behalf of a client,

His marriage to a TV anchorwoman is

crumbling; he ekes out a living doing

run-of-the-mill court-appointed cases,

such as that of Hector Quintana, a

homeless illegal alien accused of mur-

dering a Vietnamese for his wallet. But

then, suddenly, Houston s most high-

profile murder case falls into Warren s

lap, The defendant is Johnnie Faye

Boudreau, erstwhile beauty queen

and brazen owner of a topless night-

club, who shot her multimillionaire

doctor lover--she claims--in self-

defense.

Warren thinks his life is coming

together again...but as he struggles to

prepare both cases for trial, he begins

to have the sickening sense that the

two may somehow be connected.

When he discovers the shocking truth,

he also learns that as a lawyer he

can do nothing about it without for-

feiting his career and sacrificing the life

of one of his clients. Anayed against

him are a hanging judge, an obsessed

prosecutor, a faithless wife, a vanished

witness, a smiling murderer with no

conscience.