A Defense for the Dead (Tom Doherty Associates Book)

The murderer is known as Van Gogh. Leaving a bloody trail of bodies up and down the east coast, every one of the serial killer's targets receives his gruesome signature: the removal of the victim's right ear. After ten such bodies, the FBI tracks him down and takes him out, putting an end to an horrific mystery. For Boston attorney Jimmy Morrissey, however, Van Gogh's death is only the beginning.

Jimmy Morrissey has problems of his own. His wife has cancer, his practice is floundering, and his receptionist is trying to use him as his own personal bodyguard. Things only get worse when two FBI agents let him in on a chilling piece of evidence found in Van Gogh's apartment: abeautiful woman's headshot, with Morrisey's name and address on the back.

It isn't tool long before Morrissey realizes that he's been sent a message from beyond thegrave. The tightly wrapped Van Gogh case begins to unravel with every new detail Jimmy uncovers, which could mean that a murderer is still at large. But finding out the truth means taking on a client that technically doesn't exist, living Jimmy Morrissey as Defense for the Dead.

Michael Fredrickson was born in rural Minnesota. He received his B.A. from Macalester College, studied English literature at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and at the University of Toronto. He worked as a college professor, a hippy farmer, an auto mechanic, a lumberjack, a bar musician, and a singing telegrapher before obtaining his law degree from Harvard Law School.

Fredrickson spent five years working in a large Boston law firm before becoming general counsel to the state agency that polices lawyers in Massachusetts. He has also taught legal ethics and other subjects at Boston law schools. His fascination with the ethical dilemmas lawyers face is evident his crime novels, particularly A Cinderella Affidavit (1999) and A Defense for the Dead (2004). His second novel, A Witness for the Dead (2001), was a Boston Globe bestseller and the biggest seller of the year at Spencer's Mystery Bookshop in Boston.

Fredrickson lives with his wife and son in the Boston area. He summers on Cape Cod and still returns regularly to visit friends and family in Minnesota. He has participated both as a teacher and as a student in the Demos Writers' Workshop.