A Defense for the Dead — Michael Fredrickson

The murderer is known as Van Gogh. Leaving a bloody trail of bodies from coast to coast, the serial killer marks his targets with his gruesome signature: he harvests the victim's right ear. After ten such bodies, the FBI tracks him down and takes him out, putting an end to a horrific mystery. For Boston attorney Jimmy Morrissey, however, Van Gogh's death is only the beginning. Jimmy Morrissey has problems of his own. His wife has cancer, his practice is floundering, and Taffy, his receptionist, is trying to use him as her own personal bodyguard. Things only get worse when two FBI agents let him in on a chilling piece of evidence found in Van Gogh's apartment: the photograph of a beautiful woman, with Morrissey's name and address scrawled on the back of it.

From that moment on, Morrissey becomes entangled in a case that is seemingly closed. Who is the mysterious woman - and what connects her and the serial killer to Morrissey? The trail leads him to some very unexpected sources, including a transvestite entertainer named Virginia Dentata. Virginia's longtime lover was Van Gogh's last victim - or was he? His death doesn't quite fit the serial killer's MO, but weren't there details at the crime scene that only Van Gogh could have known? New clues surface to make Morrissey wonder if the man the FBI gunned down might not have been the real killer after all. It isn't long before Morrissey realizes he's been sent a message from beyond the grave. The tightly wrapped Van Gogh case begins to unravel with every new detail Morrissey uncovers, which could mean that a murderer is still at large. But finding out the truth means taking on a client who technically no longer exists, leaving Jimmy Morrissey to mount a defense for the dead.