Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Mystery/Suspense
Publisher: Precipice Press
ISBN-10: 0692666265
Type: Fiction
Pages: 314
Copyright: Dec. 3, 2014
ISBN-13: 9780692666265
Price: $3.95 (eBook)
A murder mystery with all the ingredients to keep the reader riveted, it is primarily a powerful story of redemption.
Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died is based closely on a real murder that happened in 1976. Rodger Kriger, a prominent resident of the posh town, is fatally shot one night through a window of the six-member family's home. A politically ambitious prosecutor gets a hoodlum/karate expert named Mitt Hecher convicted on the basis of testimony by jail mates, and he is sent to the brutal and anarchic state prison at Raiford prison. While attorneys appeal for a new trial, Hecher's wife contracts a usually fatal disease, and he is devastated. Did Hecher kill Kriger? A newspaper reporter who questions Hecher's guilt continues to investigate the murder for years, and digs up shocking new information. A number of scenarios cast suspicion on other possible perpetrators. Did the sons of a wealthy Cuban do it? Were the operators of a gambling enterprise out to get Kriger? Was a prominent politician behind the slaying? Did a vicious underworld figure do the bidding of a criminal gang? Was a love triangle the basis for the shooting? Murder in Palm Beach is the tale of a man whose deeds have sent him plummeting to the bottom, and powerful forces determined to keep him there.
In January 1976, the doorbell rings at the Palm Beach home of a man and his wife who have just returned from a dinner party. He answers and is mortally wounded by a shotgun blast.
Months pass and an intensive effort to find the killer leads nowhere.
Rodger Kriger was a prominent citizen, and pressure on law enforcement to solve the crime grows. Police settle on a charismatic karate instructor named Mitt Hecher, well-known to police for beating people up for money and sport, then drop him as a suspect.
But prosecutor John Scraponia manages to get him convicted and a judge sentences him to at least 25 years, denying the prosecutor’s request for the death penalty. Was Hecher guilty, or did the state attorney frame him? Scenarios as to who the killer was abound.
Murder in Palm Beach is a roman à clef, the saga of a battle between a man whose swagger has sent him spiraling to the bottom and powerful, sinister forces determined to keep him there. It is a story of redemption wrapped in a mystery tale reeking with power, sex, violence, and romance.
Excerpt
“Johnny Traynor?”
“Who’s this?”
Palladin did not remember him sounding timorous. “An acquaintance from way back. Tom Palladin.”
“Oh, yes. I remember. Haven’t seen you around for a long time.”
“I had a little difficulty finding your new number. Finally got it from a friend of yours, Davey Ross.”
“Oh, yeah, I moved inland a few years ago.”
“You used to live near the Shore Club. I thought you liked hanging out there. Why would you want to leave the neighborhood?
“Well… to tell the truth, things got a little dicey.”
“You talking about the Kriger murder?”
“Well… uh… yeah, sort of.”
“I’d like to get together with you and chat about that. I have some new information.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I don’t know if I have anything that will help you.”
“Where do you live?”
Traynor gave directions to a duplex apartment on the west side of West Palm Beach.
“How about two p.m. tomorrow?” Palladin asked.
“Yeah, that’s okay. I’m working on a guy’s car, and I’ve got plenty of time to finish it.”
“See you then.”
The neighborhood was seedy. Most of the houses were small, run-down, wood-frame structures. Early-model cars and trucks, the paint usually fading, occupied driveways, littered lawns, or sat on the street in front. Patches of dried grass sprinkled with pale green contrasted with splotches of bare, sandy earth, like the shabby clothes of a tramp with tatters that revealed his skin. Traynor’s duplex was the only property on the block that didn’t look slummy to Palladin: a white, concrete-block structure with sidewalks leading to two screen doors opening to wooden front doors. Prosaic, but the grass was mostly green, and the car in the driveway, only a few years old, looked well-cared-for.
He parked on the street and walked to the unit on the right. Opening the screen door, he knocked.
It struck Palladin like a light flipped on in a dark room. Something was different about the man who opened the door.
“Come in,” Traynor said. He gestured toward an armless, cushiony chair. “Sit down. Want a beer? Or Coke? I mean, you want a Coca Cola?” He seemed shaky.
“Thanks. Are you renting here?”
“No. I bought the duplex and rent out the other half. Gives me a little income.”
“Your place doesn’t look bad. Best one on the block.”
“I’ve gotta keep it up in order to rent it out. I rent it month-to-month and charge a big rate. A lot of my renters are people with criminal backgrounds like me who can’t find anyplace else. That’s why I bought this place. Nobody would rent to me.”
Palladin could see what had changed in the man. No longer exuding cocky self-confidence, he appeared timid, almost frightened. Sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette, his hand trembled. Then it hit Palladin. Coke. The quick clarification of the offer of Coca Cola. Traynor was a cocaine addict.
“Let me tell you why I called. I found out something from a couple of sources. I know who shot Rodger Kriger.”
Palladin saw Traynor blanch. He looked without seeing at Palladin, then raised the cigarette to his lips with a shaky hand and took his time inhaling. He turned his head to blow the smoke away from his guest.
“I think you know who it is, too.”
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Readers will be thrilled to read a publication that has been thoroughly proofed making the understanding and flow of the book perfect.
This book highlights the complexity of our justice system and why it does and does not work as it is.
The author has brought the reader on an amazing journey through the twists and turns of this truly remarkable time into the character's lives and how everyone is intertwined.
This is an exceptional read and hope to read other publications by this author.
The dialogue is perfect for each character that has been described perfectly to provide the reader with a mental image of each.
'Murder in Palm Beach' reels you in from the first chapter and you simply can't put it down. A must read!!! Very well-written novel with many plots and side story's that keep you interested until the very end. Way more then a 5 star book. I've just become a fan of Bob Brink!
The author brings to the reader a skillfully told, engrossing and fascinating story that delves deeply into the justice system. The characters, especially Hecher, are well developed and realistic. With impeccable detail the story moves quickly and keeps the reader engrossed until the end. Highly recommended.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Sometimes crimes are committed in order to seek revenge or to silence someone who knows too much about an illegal operation within his own establishment. Rodger Kriger is a wealthy businessman who although cheats on his wife on a regular basis still owns and runs several restaurants until someone decided to take it all away from him including his life. The settings are many as they take place in bars that are dives, backrooms of restaurants and even dives that most would never set foot in. The customers are quite colorful and the prostitutes enjoy the fringe benefits and the local color, criminals and drug dealers would sell their souls to the devil for a light sentence even if it means perjuring themselves in court. The characters are hardcore and the customers you will meet in the bars are low class as one man and his partner have a huge following and scheme as you meet Mitt Hecher, karate teacher, owner of his own karate studio but his way of getting clients is anything but orthodox but for him it works. Entering many bars choosing a mark he intentionally picks a fight, insults the poor victim or customer and then winds up threatening the person if he does not sign up for several sessions to learn to defend himself. Matt loves his image and even more his scheme but sometimes even the best-played hands have to fold and not in the way he would have wanted. His studio is in West Palm Beach and to get him off the victim’s back he has to cough up 20 dollars as a binder you might say to begin his journey to learning self-defense.
Mitt is not on the top ten likable list of the police and although they often have to disband what he starts while he signs new clients sometimes things that are good can happen from something bad. One evening he spots two women one he hopes for his friend Davey and partner and the other Diane for himself. Things escalate and they form a partnership and eventually marry but not everyone lives happily ever after especially when prosecuting attorney has it in for you.
Roger Kriger finds out that two of his employees are running a bolito game in his backroom and making a fortune off the innocent victims who fall prey to thinking the odds are in their favor. It's a lottery in which bets are made on an unpredictable number like a daily stock quotation. Things spiral out of control when Rodger Kriger and his wife Jan attend a party and arrive home thinking they would be off to bed. But, someone comes to their door and the next thing you know he is fatally shot and in his home. Kriger shot, dies in the hospital after surviving for almost two weeks. However, his death is tragic to his wife and six kids and even more to his girlfriend Stella. His wife knows about his actions and his shady deals but the police are determined to pin the murder on someone and get the case closed. Facts are sketchy in this case but the police could care less about the truth and Matt is the scapegoat and it’s pinned on him with the help of liars, criminals, drug dealers and other unreliable and definitely not credible witnesses. The trial you might say is more like a monkey trial and the end result is the jury to twenty- five years in prison sentences Mitt but they are not done yet. This is just the first leg there are appeals, reasonable doubt but the prosecutor will promise anything to anyone to get a conviction even get admissible in the court a forged confession not signed by Mitt but by someone else. The year is 1976 the month is January and the dinner party described proved to be Kriger’s last but when information comes to light someone comes forward and claims he was the real victim and that Mitt was aiming for him for not paying up for the drugs he sold him. State’s attorney, Bosworth and his corrupt prosecutor, Scraponia, find witnesses, inmates and anyone else to lie, cheat, forge and admit guilt on their part, overhearing confessions that never happened and managed to offer these people deals if they help them convict Mitt for life in prison and then the death penalty. High profile murder cases are what these two love and even though he is innocent some are wrongly accused and get locked away as we learn in the headlines everyday. The author brings to light just how corrupt some law enforcement officers are and how some will do anything for a conviction especially if a promotion in the picture. There are others who play a part and imagine having his wife, new son and his family in the courtroom when he’s convicted. The jury deliberations did not take long and we really do not know what they were thinking because their thoughts were not shared with the reader. Jailhouse lawyers are plentiful and one that Mitt befriends might turn on him in order to get time off from his own sentence. Twenty-five appeals that fail and the Florida Board of Clemency finally commutes his sentences to ten years of his time sentence served. Deceit, lies, blackmailing inmates, bribes for lesser sentences or time served, forgeries and a defense attorney who was supposed to take Mitt’s part but failed to even be there for the verdict sending an immediate red flag up.
Tom Palladin is a freelance journalist who believes in his innocence and along with Mitt and there others hope to exonerate him and bring the real killer to justice. Even getting another attorney, Susan Strickland to work with Tom and help Diane who is raising Pauley, their son alone but believes in Mitt’s innocence.
In prison, Mitt gets permission to start a karate workshop, and is popular with the other inmates. Furthermore, he writes a successful self-help book, "Practical Ways to Foil a Rape: The Preying Man Won't Have a Prayer," and organizes a prison tennis program, all the while fighting for his own release.
In spite of covering years of prison time, this book moves quickly and energetically, and Mitt Hecher is a character we can all back in a fight. Mitt Hecher was definitely not a model citizen and he did get into many different types of fights with people and even the police. One thing he did not do is murder anyone. Unfortunately, thanks to a corrupt judicial system and some prosecutors who are trying to make a name for them, it looks like they have convicted an innocent man. Being sent to jail for minor charges would be acceptable but to be convicted and sentenced for murder when the witnesses are all people who are in jail with the accused is really unbelievable.
Yes we are told to accept the verdict of the jury but how can we when they evidence they are given are lies?
More appeals, corrupt judges, police and criminals that are bought off and given lighter sentences and even money to claim they either saw something related to Kriger’s murder or heard Mitt say he killed him when in reality he had nothing to do with it at all. With his wife terminally ill and a young son hoping to make him proud things get tough for Pauley in school. Documents, reports, evidence not looked at, vital information discarded and two men in high places just looking to keep Mitt in jail for their own purposes but why?
A model prisoner and allowed to create a Karate Club to help other inmates defend themselves against those that are even more violent. Tennis courts built with the money from the inmates used for recreational purposes and possibly a way to burn off excess energy and steam. Through it all seeing Diane, his son and his mother on short visits that took them hours in order to get to the prison, Mitt tries to keep a stiff upper lip, his anger in check and yet the emotional upheaval and strain eventually does take its toll.
A criminal was identified but for a lighter sentence the killer gets away with the murder. Several men gave Mitt’s lawyer Seppish sworn statements taking back their allegations regarding Hecher and Seppish is about to ask another inmate named Crimshaw the same. When it comes in front of another judge the plain facts are that he was convicted mainly on the testimonies of convicted felons, as the prosecutor admitted and volunteered. Even one admitted that he lied and passed the polygraph test. Four inmates at the Palm Beach County jail show testified admitted that they lied and one was classified as a pathological liar so why with all of these facts if he still in jail. But, the rebuttals by Sullivan seemed to have the hear of the judge and the chief counsel for Hecher tried to show the incompetence of the lawyer that represented him.
The judge listened to Scraponia and the end result horrific again. Lies, cover-ups, corruption, payoffs, deceits, blindsided lawyers, judges who did not want to make waves and a man who could spend his life in prison for just being who he was. Despite his previous life selling drugs, scams to get business for his Karate classes Mitt Hecher changes his life and the end result you won’t believe. When he finally does get released with stipulations he and several others are determined to clear his name but at what price and will the succeed? The tragic ending for someone will bring tears to the reader’s eyes but the heroic efforts of Mitt and his team will make the reader stand up and applaud. A story created by author Robert Brink that could be ripped right out of the headlines today as the end we hope just might justify the means and the struggle for freedom is told in a sequence, methodically and well formulated way that the reader takes the journey along with Mitt from start to finish but where will they both wind up? t Murder In Palm Beach: Go there at your own risk that’s if Irma left anything to visit!
Fran Lewis: Just reviews/MJ magazine