Nicholas Clemente

Pawns of Justice Nicholas Clemente

Justice Ron Goodman is a trial judge at the center of a high-profile medical malpractice case, and the stakes are enormous. When one of the defendants, Dr. DiTucci, is killed and another has his car blown up, Detective Jack Zangara, a friend of Goodman's, realizes that there is a connection between the case and the murder. Thus begins a complex game of treachery, deceit, and contract killings. The malpractice case centers around a woman who is near death as a result of a botched operation at a prominent New York hospital with particularly deep pockets-a ripe target for seven-figure insurance claims. But Dr. DiTucci's suspicious death only raises more questions for all involved: who killed him-and who will be next? When Zangara alerts Goodman to the possible chicanery going on in his courtroom, the two men must determine if the woman is the victim of flagrant medical malpractice, or if mobsters are killing doctors merely to win a lawsuit. Soon an ever-widening web of players emerges that includes organized crime heads, hit men, crooked cops, corrupt lawyers, philanderers, and gamblers. They battle each other in a seedy world that links the highest echelons of our judicial system with the lowest depths of criminal activity.