THE SECOND MAN

A Russell Palmer Novel • Jeffrey S. Stephens

THE SECOND MAN

A killer invented an accomplice. Now an innocent man has to prove a ghost was never there.

Caleb Lawson was walking home at three in the morning wearing a hoodie. That was enough. An hour later he was in a lineup for a killing he knew nothing about.

The man who pulled the trigger has a story: there was a second man on that street, and he ran off with the gun. The only witness says there was no one else there at all. Between those two accounts stands a young man with no alibi, no priors, and a father on the force who has not spoken to him in years.

Russell Palmer takes the case. His investigator Robbie Whyte works the street. And New York — a mayor counting votes, an organiser counting crowds, a press corps counting clicks — decides what happened before either of them can find out.

What this book gives you is the thing courtroom fiction rarely does: a case where the truth is not hidden but absent, and where proving nothing happened is harder than proving something did. It is written by a lawyer who has spent forty years in the rooms where these fights are actually had — and it reads like it.

If you read Grisham, Turow or Connelly, this belongs on the same shelf.

The Second Man is the second Russell Palmer novel, following Illusions of Trust.

ENEMIES AMONG US

As Nick Reagan hunts down the terrorist mastermind, The Handler, he uncovers corruption at the highest levels of government, perhaps even within his own CIA.

THE HANDLER

This gripping adventure takes two CIA operatives from New York to Afghanistan, Paris, Las Vegas, and, ultimately, America’s heartland as they race to prevent a series of terrorist attacks.

When the CIA uncovers details of violent assaults planned throughout the United States, clandestine CIA operative Nicholas Reagan and his partner, Carol Gellos, are assigned to prevent them—traveling across the world as they confront long odds and danger along the way.

The hard cover of THE HANDLER is being released by Post Hill Press on August 30th, Kindle version is available at Amazon.

FOOL’S ERRAND

Years after the death of his gangster father, a young man discovers a letter that sends him reluctantly defying the mob as he races to locate a hidden treasure.

Blackie lived on the edges of organized crime—a charming rogue who never attained the wealth he coveted while endlessly pursuing “The Big Deal”—while his son did all he could to avoid the pitfalls of his father’s chosen path, pursuing a respectable career as an ad executive. Now, six years after Blackie’s death, his son discovers the enigmatic letter his father had written, telling of a cache of stolen money, propelling him on a search that leads from the mean streets of New York, to the Strip in Las Vegas, and ultimately to the south of France. Along the way he is forced to confront the dangers of the underworld and his father’s past, embarking on a life-altering journey that unravels the decades-long mystery his father left him to solve, while revealing other secrets as well.

FOOL’S ERRAND is poignant and entertaining, humorous and exciting, romantic and mysterious—an adventure that explores the relationship between a father and son, and the events that will ultimately lead that young man to discover both the treasure and himself.

CRIMES AND PASSION

Danger meets desire in the gripping mystery Crimes and Passion from Jeffrey S. Stephens, author of the popular Jordan Sandor thrillers. Crimes and Passion opens with the murder of a seductive socialite and unfolds into the fast-paced narrative and clever character development for which Stephens is known. When the detective assigned to the case discovers a racy journal the woman left behind, he needs to decipher her cryptic tales of sexual conquest in time to prevent more victims.

Elizabeth Knoebel expected her appointment that night to provide another juicy entry in her private diary, aptly entitled Sexual Rites. But a shadowy figure, watching from the edge of her property, has other plans. Instead of an evening of pleasure, Elizabeth is confronted by someone who wants to put an end to her destructive behavior — and succeeds.

Crimes and Passion is the gripping mystery-thriller from Jeffrey S. Stephens, effortlessly weaving suspense and sensuality with psychological undercurrents.

Elizabeth’s murder investigation is turned over to Lieutenant Robbie Whyte, a former New York City cop now serving on the force in affluent Fairfield County, Connecticut. Whyte understands that the appearances of the privileged gentry are often far removed from reality, and this certainly proves to be true in the case of Elizabeth Knoebel, who Whyte discovers was under the care of psychotherapist Dr. Randi Conway.

When Whyte finds Elizabeth’s diary, Sexual Rites, he uncovers explicit details of her erotic adventures with various men, many of whom may have been the husbands of the women in her therapy group. Elizabeth was a predator bent on seducing and, in some instances, humiliating these men, obsessed with a perverse mission that Whyte believes led to her murder.

The secrets of Crimes and Passion are peeled away one layer at a time as readers meet an assortment of Dr. Conway’s patients — one of whom may have been Elizabeth’s killer. With Dr. Conway unwilling to betray her patients’ confidences, Whyte’s investigation gets complicated, putting the therapist herself in more danger as Whyte gets closer to the truth, and to the doctor herself.

With a pacing that mirrors Whyte’s frantic search for the truth, Crimes and Passion keeps readers guessing as each revelation unfolds. And along the way, readers are shown glimpses into the dynamics that cause marriages to succeed, to fail or sometimes, to end in tragedy.