Law

[close] One winter night in 1879, at a lonely Kansas campsite near Crooked Creek, a man was shot to death. The dead man’s traveling companion identified him as John Hillmon, a cowboy from Lawrence who had been attempting to carve out a life on the blustery prairie. The case might have been soon forgotten and the apparent widow, Sallie Hillmon, left to mourn—except for the $25,000 life insurance policies Hillmon had taken out shortly before his departure. The insurance companies refused to pay on the policies, claiming that the dead man was not John Hillmon, and Sallie was forced to take them to court in a case that would reach the Supreme Court twice. The companies’ case rested on a crucial piece of evidence: a faded love letter written by a disappeared cigarmaker, declaring his intent to travel westward with a “man named Hillmon.”

In A Death at Crooked Creek, Marianne Wesson re-examines the long-neglected evidence in the case of the Kansas cowboy and his wife, recreating the court scenes that led to a significant Supreme Court ruling on the admissibility of hearsay evidence. Wesson employs modern forensic methods to examine the body of the dead man, attempting to determine his true identity and finally put this fascinating mystery to rest.

This engaging and vividly imagined work combines the drama, intrigue, and emotion of excellent storytelling with cutting-edge forensic investigation techniques and legal theory. Wesson’s superbly imagined A Death at Crooked Creek will have general readers, history buffs, and legal scholars alike wondering whether history, and the Justices, may have misunderstood altogether the events at that bleak winter campsite. [close]

[close] Win a signed copy of LOVE PROOF, the first book in Elizabeth Ruston's steamy new legal romance series.

Lawyer Sarah Henley hopes to salvage her career by accepting an assignment few other attorneys would want. The fact that her opponent will be her former lover Joe Burke only sweetens the deal. He broke her heart six years ago, and she’s never understood why. Now she has a chance to even the score by beating him on the battlefield.

But things rarely go as planned either in love or the law. [close]

[close] A candid and authentic picture of Biglaw practice today. This book is both a damning critique on what the practice of law in a large law firm has become for most and an invaluable guide to practice based on the experiences of actual associates. [close]