Blood on Their Hands

A lawyer defends a young Black man who was brutally assaulted by two bigoted police officers and discovers a deeper conspiracy that endangers his life.

Hiram Garbuncle is a veteran criminal defense attorney—as well as a racist, miserly alcoholic. His life revolves around hoarding money, following sports, pursuing sex, drinking—and the prideful practice of law.

Alec Monceau is a Black man working to support his daughter’s family in Trinidad. It is 2008, and his car carries an Obama bumper sticker. This political advertisement leads to a superfluous traffic stop and a brutal beating by police.

It goes against Garbuncle’s grain to defend a Black man from a charge of violently resisting arrest, but he is so confident of winning that he is negligent in the jury selection, and a mistrial occurs. He then discovers incriminating evidence on the two cops, and his new challenge becomes how to keep himself and his client alive pending a new trial.

BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS words) is a legal thriller that borrows themes from the movies Gran Torino and My Cousin Vinnie. It relies on the author's experience as a newspaper reporter who once covered a Ku Klux Klan meeting.