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Verdict of Vengeance

by Lyal Le Clair Fox

156 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0147; ISBN 1-55212-747-8; US$17.50, C$19.50, EUR14.00, £10.00

A young man's life depends on the verdict of a jury made up of vengeful, blood thirsty residents of a small town. Is circumstantial evidence, and an unbelievable series of events, enough for them to him convict and sentence him to hang? Is his best friend, the man he is actually accused of killing, really dead?

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book How could a jury believe that Jack Marion would have murdered his best friend? Jack had spent practically his whole life looking after John Cameron, despite the fact he was about three years older than John. They were born neighbors on farms in southern Iowa, and their families moved to the same area in northeast Kansas at the same time, just prior to the Civil War. They grew up together, played together and shared their families hardships and heartaches together. They were like brothers. They received little schooling and Jack, though quite intelligent, was illiterate. He could write his name but that was about all. Could this jury wrongfully convict Jack on circumstantial evidence and sentence him to hang, because he was poor and illiterate, just to satisfy a town's lust for blood and vengeance?

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About the Author Lyal LeClair Fox, born and raised on a farm in southern Iowa, is also the author of the emotional Civil War romance novel Reflections From The River Bank released in January 2001.

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Sample Excerpt

 

Breakfast in Bed

"Wake up Jack! Here's your breakfast," said Buster, in a gruff, raspy voice, as he rattled the steel, jail cell door. Buster was the grumpy old jailer at the Gage County Jail, in Beatrice, Nebraska, and his bark was worse than his bite. There were some, who even said that they thought, he actually, sort of liked Jack.

Jack slowly sat up, rubbed his eyes, looked out through the bars at Buster holding a tray of food, and said, in a tired and dejected voice, "What are we having for breakfast this morning?"

"What the hell makes the difference?" growled Buster, "You ought to be damn glad you're getting anything at all. They should of hung your murder'n ass months ago and I wouldn't have to be feed'n ya every day."

"Piss on you!" said Jack, sarcastically, as he got up andtook the tray of food, as Buster opened the cell door. "I didn't kill anybody. You're as bad as the rest of the assholes in this damn town. You just wanted to hang somebody, and I'm the poor son-of-a-bitch you picked todo it to."

"Just eat yer breakfast and quit yer bitch'n," said Buster,as the steel door clanged shut, and locked again.

Jack sat down on his cot and began eating his breakfast,which consisted of two flap-jacks, molasses, a small piece of salted pork, a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of milk. All of which was cold. While he was eating, he chuckled to himself, and hollered, "HEY BUSTER! Could I have some sugar for my oatmeal?" There was no answer, and Jack chuckled again.

He finished his breakfast, sat the empty tray on the floor by the cell door and laid back down on his cot...

..."John, you ornery bastard," thought Jack. "We went through a lot together, and you got me into more damn trouble than I care to remember. I think we got thrown in jail in about every town in Kansas, and, this part of Nebraska, but this is the worst mess you ever got me into. I figured that mouth of yours and your passion for whiskey and women would get us both killed some day, and it looks like I was right. I'll always believe that if we had never gone to Greenview, Kansas, our lives would have been different, and we would never have ended up this way."

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Catalogue Information

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