Spider Tat

by Crystal and Tom Russell, Mr. Thomas Russell

Spider Tat is the latest murder mystery by popular authors, Tom Russell (Quondam 2017) and Crystal Russell (Tender Offers 2014). It is through the joint efforts of husband Tom Russell, a retired private investigator, and his wife, Attorney, Crystal Russell, that this book became a reality. It incorporates the unique talents of both authors. Crystal had the idea for the story and she was working on it at the time of her death. Her husband’s challenge was to pick up where his wife left off and complete the novel.The novel illuminates the dark side of the deep state. It is a story about Layla Meeks a naïve Los Angeles, California criminal defense attorney. She is Lakota Sioux on her mother’s side and Iranian on her father’s side. Layla becomes romantically involved with her client, Harlan Whitley, a charlatan and a shady entrepreneur. Harlan has questionable associates in Washington, DC. that will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. At the behest of his associates he puts together a sham solar panel manufacturing company for the sole purpose of obtaining a five-hundred-million-dollar government backed loan. Once the money is received the company is put into bankruptcy. Harlan gets a percentage but most of the proceeds go to his shady associates in Washington, DC, the ones very well connected and very high up on the food chain.Layla’s client, Harlan Whitley IV is facing a forty-count indictment for fraud before Federal Court Judge Willis H. J. Blackford III. His associates are not happy with how his trial is going as they are looking for an acquittal or a mistrial. On the night that federal court judge Blackford is murdered, Harlan is sleeping in bed with his defense counsel Layla Meeks. She becomes his alibi and is told in so many words to cooperate with him or his associates will hunt her down like a dog and there will be no place on earth that she can hide. While Layla is hiding on The Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation two assassins are hired by Harlan’s associates in the deep state to silence her. Harlan himself becomes a marked man, and fakes his own death. He flees to South America but he is also pursued. The story deals with their flights to avoid being murdered. There are other assorted political assassinations to cement the power of those at the very top and allow them to claim ‘plausible deniability’ which insulates them from indictment and prosecution. It is a compelling story with many twists and turns and an abundance of political intrigue. Any resemblance to persons living or dead or with the same name is purely coincidental.

336 pages, Paperback

Published July 10, 2018