Shades of Justice

A taut and suspense-filled thriller in the style of Scott Turow and Richard North Patterson, Shades of Justice takes the reader on a journey of discovery with forensic psychiatrist Will Hatton, as he searches for both reason and truth when an old friend confesses to the murder of her husband.

The murder case that lures Will Hatton back to the Pacific Northwest island where he grew up involves a socially prominent and very successful painter, Laura Arcand. Laura is charged with the killing of her husband, Mark Talbot, a hard-driving businessman who runs the multi-million-dollar company owned by Laura's mother. For the prosecution, it is an open-and-shut case. But Laura's mother and her mother's longtime lover, Edwin Hauser, a well-known criminal defense lawyer, are convinced that Laura was mentally ill at the time of Mark's death and has no actual memory of events. They hope that the jury will find her not guilty by reason of insanity.

It falls to Will Hatton, working with a young lawyer named Mary Slattery from Hauser's firm, to delve twenty-five years into the past and find the truth behind Laura's mysterious disappearance in the summer of 1972. Before their investigation is over, the circle of suspicion will widen to include not just Laura's and Mark's enemies -- for both had many -- but also their friends and loved ones. As Laura's trial peels away the many layers of deception, Will finally comes face-to-face with the ugly reality of just who did kill Mark Talbot -- and why.

Fredrick Huebner, the author of five previous novels, is a Seattle-based lawyer. An earlier novel, Judgment by Fire was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Bainbridge Island, Washington.