A Distant Cause

C. Bruce West, surrounded by the trappings of his professional success, is floundering in his private life. He is hired to defend Jefferson Wilkes, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Wilkes relates a totally unbelievable and utterly preposterous tale about how he got arrested, then disappears until fifteen minutes before his trial is scheduled to begin. The client failed to pay Bruce his fee, or the expenses of his investigation, but refused to ask the Judge for a postponement so he could get another lawyer. The Judge refused to permit Bruce to withdraw from the case. Unprepared, unpaid and unable to extricate himself from a protracted trial, Bruce decides to even the score by selecting an all white, female jury certain to convict his client. However, an irresistible force of human nature overwhelms his desire for revenge, and as the trial begins, Bruce becomes obsessed with winning .. winning is everything .. No, it isn' t everything .. It is the only thing! As the trial unfolds, the facts take a series of bizarre twists and turns. Although Wilkes' story doesn' t gain credibility, the prosecutor' s case begins to unravel and come apart at the seams. The story is laced with humor and contains a subplot of Bruce's romance with Jennifer Dunn, Wilke' s boss. It begins as a one-night stand, but is about to smother him and destroy the bliss of his bachelorhood. He plots, plans and rehearses ways of ending the relationship, but somehow the time and circumstances never seem appropriate. Can justice ultimately prevail? Somehow it always does. Ultimately, justice prevails .. for Wilke' s, for Jennifer and for Bruce.