Part 44 (2/2)
”I meant are you serious that you think you need a good word from me?”
”Well, the Bar a.s.sociation is still after my a.s.s-last night I heard the hoofbeats of the posse-and Diaz over in Miami would like to string me up from a cottonwood tree.”
”Don't worry about it, Ted.”
That's what my mother said too. More important, Judge Ruth said it. I received copies of his letters: one to the Bar a.s.sociation, one to the state attorney in Tallaha.s.see. To the Bar a.s.sociation he wrote: ”This court would look unfavorably on further hara.s.sment of Mr. Jaffe for any-the court repeats, any-actions of his in this jurisdiction.” And to the state attorney, he said, in effect: ”I personally will intervene with the governor if you don't get that little f.u.c.k Diaz off my buddy's back.”
Within a month I was offered a job in the special defense division of the public defender's office. I would be based in Sarasota County but would travel all over the state. The salary was not quite a third of what Royal, Kelly guaranteed me.
”What do you think?” I asked Toba.
”I think it would be crazy,” she said. ”Cathy's talking about graduate school. Alan's out there in art school, and he may want to go on to college. What if we lose this lawsuit to the spider woman? We just can't afford it.”
”We won't lose the lawsuit,” I said firmly. ”And I can't afford not to take the job. I want it. It will make me feel I'm a useful human being instead of a parasite.”
She had seen that look in my eye before. But she didn't back off or sulk. She hugged me and said, ”Do it, Ted. We'll work things out.”
I took the job. Toba and I went to services at our local temple that Friday evening, and a line from the prayerbook struck me and stayed with me: There will we serve with awe as in the days of old.
(Please continue ...).
Dear Reader, If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends about it. And if you have a few moments, you can post a review. Thoughtful and positive opinions encourage a writer.
And of course they help sales. Writers have to live and eat (just like real human beings).
Other good books by Clifford Irving are available. The t.i.tles follow, and they link to Kindle. Or you might want to visit the author's website at:.
cliffordirving.com.
TRIAL A Legal Thriller.
”The courtroom scenes are breathtaking . . . gripping suspense . . . riveting!” - Publishers Weekly FINAL ARGUMENT A Legal Thriller.
”A courtroom thriller, a mean streets thriller, a Florida cracker thriller, a gritty prison thriller, and an Everyman study of good and evil all rolled into one. And every part of it is terrific. What a wonderful piece of storytelling!”- Donald Westlake, The New York Times DADDY'S GIRL: A True Thriller of Texas Justice ”Irving builds suspense with skill and makes the people come to life . . . a fine book.” - Houston Chronicle Clifford Irving's PRISON JOURNAL (a/k/a JAILING) ”A tale of intelligent triumph under remarkable stress. It has the ring of truth and is highly recommended.” - Times of London TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA a Romance of Revolutionary Mexico and the 20th Century American West ”Fabulous, big, rawboned wild-blooded adventure tale that gives the sights and sounds and smells of a turn-of-the-century world real enough to touch. Clifford Irving has written a novel to make any writer proud and many readers grateful.” - Los Angeles Herald Examiner Clifford Irving's AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD HUGHES.
”It's almost impossible to know where fact leaves off and fiction begins, if indeed that distinction should be made. This is a hypnotizing narrative, a brilliant study of money's power to corrupt absolutely.” - Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times THE ANGEL OF ZIN A Holocaust Mystery.
”Exciting, dynamic, and marvelously written.”- Publishers Weekly FAKE! the Life of the Master Art Faker of the 20th Century ”The wild, true story of three men who raped the art world . . . one of the most sophisticated suspense sagas of our time . . . fantastic.” - Chicago Tribune THE SPRING A Legal Thriller.
”An extraordinarily entertaining and thoughtful combination of Lost Horizons and Presumed Innocent. Not only is it a mystery--on at least two levels--but it poses troubling questions concerning prolonged life and its ultimate value.”- Booklist STRANGER TO THE KINGDOM (formerly THE VALLEY) a mythic novel of the Old West ”A superb novel that grips the reader from start to thrilling finish. Its solidity is that of a Greek myth.” - Times Literary Supplement PROJECT OCTAVIO the Rise and Fall of the Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax ”Brilliant.” Newsday ”A masterpiece.” CBS Radio THE DEATH FREAK A CIA Thriller (an Eddie Mancuso and Vasily Borgneff novel) ”A suavely persuasive, anti-Establishment thriller with the bitter aftertaste of Campari and vodka. A clever, cynical, and compelling novel.” - Time Magazine THE SLEEPING SPY A CIA Thriller (an Eddie Mancuso and Vasily Borgneff novel) ”A dazzling combination of high suspense and hijinks, and some most unusual killings.” - Los Angeles Times THE 38TH FLOOR A Thriller of International Politics ”Some smas.h.i.+ng skullduggery, with shadowings, chases, and a marvelous climax.” - Sunday Telegraph THE LOSERS A New York Thriller ”A serious book built out of thriller elements.” - London Sunday Times CLASH BY NIGHT (formerly ON A DARKLING PLAIN) A first novel ”A fine debut.” - New York Times THE BATTLE OF JERUSALEM A Personal History of the Six-Day War, 1967 ”Clifford [Irving] was there, he saw what happened, and he tells it the way it happened.” Irwin Shaw BOY ON TRIAL A Legal Thriller.
not yet reviewed.
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Author's Bio:.
(at the request of some readers).
h.e.l.lo. I'm Clifford Irving, a man who's had an eventful time on the planet. I was once on the cover of Time Magazine, and Hollywood made a movie about part of my life. Richard Gere played me.
I traveled twice around the world before most people living in it today were born; I stood guard in an Israeli kibbutz, crewed on a 56' three-masted schooner that sailed the Atlantic from Mexico to France, smuggled whisky from Tangier to Spain, and one spring I lived on a houseboat on Dal Lake in Kashmir from where I rode horseback intoTibet.
Growing up in Manhattan, I studied painting at the High School of Music & Art. At Cornell University I chased beautiful but unconquerable Ivy League coeds, rowed on the crew, and dreamed of becoming a great writer. I sailed to Europe, settled on the decadent Mediterranean island of Ibiza, and wrote my first novel. I sent it to a literary agent in New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons published it.
Was it really as easy and as quick as that? Of course not. I was lucky. And determined.
I taught at UCLA graduate extension school, with Betsy Drake and Cary Grant among my pupils. I became a correspondent to the Middle East for NBC. And I kept writing books.
In 1970, I created a writing event which became the Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax. Many believe that the threat of the book's publication, with its revelations of the Hughes-Nixon bribes, caused Nixon to approve the Watergate break-in.
My reward in 1972 for these accusations (and lunacy) was 16 months in three federal prisons.
Over time I wrote write 20 books that were published to varying degrees of success in the USA by Putnam, McGraw-Hill, and Simon & Schuster, as well as translated into many languages.
All of my books are on Nook and Kindle at affordable prices: $2.99 to $5.99. That's less expensive than a paperback and half the price of a movie. A good read is one of the amazing pleasures offered to us by civilization.
”Move over, Butch and Sundance, it's not that I love you both less, just that I've come to love Pancho and Tom more” said the New York Times Book Review about Tom Mix and Pancho Villa, which I believe is my best book. Trial, followed by Daddy's Girl, and Final Argument all legal thrillers are the top sellers.
My ma.n.u.scripts, notes, journals and correspondence are stored permanently at the Center for American History at the University of Texas (Austin), which acquired the archive in 2013.
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Further descriptions and reviews:.
TRIAL.
A Legal Thriller.
”Terrific! Don't begin this book at bedtime or you'll be up all night . . . Trial is like a birchbark canoe or a seven-layer cake. You can go crazy trying to figure out how it's made, and it's made by a master.” - Caroline See, Los Angeles Times ”Riveting legal edge-of-the-seater, has Texas and American justice systems by the tail.” - Daily Telegraph (London) ”Jet-propelled . . . colorful, down-and-dirty characters . . . most readers will want to read this at one sitting.” - Library Journal A thrilling adventure into the real world of criminal law, a powerful novel that deals with murder, the morality of justice and the perils of love, Clifford Irving's book sets a new standard for courtroom fiction.
A Texas lawyer, Warren Blackburn, defends two accused murderers in two separate cases. One of his clients is a former beauty queen and brazen owner of a topless nightclub, who shot her multimillionaire doctor lover she claims in self-defense; the other is a homeless illegal alien accused of killing a man for his wallet.
Without warning, the two cases become one, and Warren's entire life and career are threatened.
William Safire in The New York Times called Trial ”the novel of the year.”
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