In Northampton, Massachusetts, defense attorneys, partners and best friends Zack Wilson and Terry Tallach have just caught the case of a lifetime.  Calvin Thompkins has been charged with six counts of premeditated murder.  The evidence is rock solid.  The state is going for the death penalty.  Due to a new crime bill, if Calvin is convicted, he will be the first execution in Massachusetts in fifty years. 

When Zack and Terry meet with Calvin, they realize their case has just gone from bad to worse.  Calvin did it.  To his lawyers he admits killing the six University of Massachusetts students.  He claims to have killed them to stop a bigger injustice. )  Yet Calvin has no proof to help with his case. 

As if things aren’t bad enough, the judge and the District Attorney have their own agendas.  The trial is going before Judge Richard Cottonwood (“Judge Dick” behind his back).  Judge Cottonwood is the hardest in the state on defendants, ever since his mother was raped and murdered at age sixty.  He has the highest turnover rate upon appeal.  The DA, Fran O’Neill, is a pompous ass with his eye on becoming governor. 

Woven around the story of Calvin are other stories within the country. In Washington D.C.  President Matt Ferguson never wanted or expected to be president.  Chosen based on his heroic military career, Ferguson was appointed to Vice President when the prior VP resigned amid scandal.  Then President Graham, a 48-year-old fit man who exercised daily, died of a brain aneurysm.  Recently President Ferguson found memos about US judges from a former White House staff member to President Graham.

In Detroit, Michigan Lena Takamura is a journalist working as a waitress looking for her big break.  While interviewing a young girl who gave her grandfather CPR, Lena finds a discrepancy between the 911 transcript and the police report.

Zack is a single dad who plays by the rules, especially as a lawyer.  Terry is a bit of a player.  He’s more willing to bend a couple rules to help clients.  The two characters play off of each other well.   Their different philosophies on the nuances and limits of the law come into play when defending Calvin.  How do you defend a man who admits to murder but then claims he had to do it?

It’s not often that reader’s feel sympathetic to the multiple homicide killer.  In Calvin, Gaffney has created a murderer who readers care about.  Calvin is a geek.  He’s a large buff intimating geek but still a geek.  He’s a MIT post-graduate who’s made lots of money in software.  I’ve known quite a few geeks who would likely snap under less than Calvin endured.  It’s unusual to have a geek as a murderer rather than the stereotypical psycho killer.  But that’s certainly part of what make him an interesting character.  Now how are Zack and Terry going to save him from the death penalty?

From the start, Premeditated Murder is fast paced, attention grabbing read.  In an unusual plot, there is no question who committed the murders.  The suspense is around Calvin’s trial, why he did it, what will happen to him and figuring out how the other stories are related.  And keeping things interesting, Premeditated Murder is written in a series of current events and flashbacks.  I look forward to more from Ed Gaffney.

--Terry Lawrence