A Moveable Verdict — David Cudlip

A courtroom crime drama on a par with Robert Traver's Anatomy of a Murder. A young, highly acclaimed film actress is on trial for allegedly murdering Marc Sterne, the son of a Hollywood studio mogul, Julio Sterne. The evidence against her is mainly circumstantial, yet it's up to the jury to decide if she'll walk the hard walk or not…figuring into the story is the presiding judge, Cliff Rhodes, who has a lot more at stake in the outcome than he ever imagined…then there's Audrey Sterne, the victim's step-mother, and Rhodes's paramour of an earlier time. She is drawn into the fray in ways that threaten her entire way of life, not least of which is her marriage to Julio Sterne, father to the deceased and the big-shot film maker. And then what of Romaine Brook, the celebrated young Oscar-winning actress? Is she innocent of the alleged murder? Being framed? Or is she duping the jury by putting on the best act of her life? The situation is further tangled when Alonzo Fahey, a private-eye with Quixotic tendencies, unwittingly opens Pandora's Box, as he makes inquiries in the wrong places, although for the right reasons. The outcome will shorten your breath…when, just as that great pundit H. L. Mencken once observed: “Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.”