Ventura County resident H. Mitchell Caldwell, the author of the award-winning Jake Clearwater Legal Thriller series, releases the second installment on March 30, 2023. Titled COST OF DECEIT, the series lead character, Jake Clearwater is basking in the glow of his last major legal accomplishment, freeing a convicted man from death row for the Innocence Project. However, the Los Angeles District Attorney approaches him to take over the murder retrial of a LA Deputy Sheriff.

Caldwell is a real-life former prosecutor turned law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He draws on his career experiences to craft a fast-paced legal thriller with an eye for detail, especially in how courtroom confrontations happen. This closeness to reality has drawn praise for his books.
Darren Shulman, an Ohio Lawyer, wrote in his review for the Ohio State Bar Association Journal, “As a former prosecutor myself, I appreciated how the book accurately portrays trial proceedings, including a realistic approach to cross-examination and an insightful view of the different ways prosecutors and defense attorneys approach a case and present their evidence.”

Book signings are now being finalized, and the book is available for pre-order through all major distributors for print and ebooks, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon for online purchases. Please see the directions below to review a print or ebook version.

STORY DESCRIPTION

L. A. Sheriff Lieutenant Max Cort is accused of killing his wife, but how can Jake Clearwater prosecute a murder trial without a body?

This high-profile courtroom drama has Los Angeles TV stations scrambling for legal commentary. One invites law professor and attorney Jake Clearwater to handle the nightly updates on the hearing. Jake gained fame for defending a convicted murderer, gaining him a retrial, exposing the real killer, and getting his client off and released from prison.

Jake realizes it’s not going the prosecution’s way early in the trial. First, he makes a few comments on TV that catch the District Attorney’s attention. Then, with a deadlocked jury, the DA invites Clearwater to talk and asks him to head the retrial team. Jake has some special requirements before accepting, including services that are not usually part of the DA’s office repertoire but are reluctantly granted. With his team, they dig deeper into Lieutenant Cort, questioning and confronting the suspect’s alibi and the assumed victim’s closest confidants while working with sheriff department investigators to gather more evidence.

As the new trial unfolds, Jake becomes immersed in the muck of Cort’s life—his obsessive ambition and unbridled brutality. With an expensive, high-power attorney, the defense claims the wife ran away. Can Jake overcome the barriers and win a conviction?

Cost of Deceit is the second book in the award-winning Jake Clearwater Legal Thriller series by author H. Mitchell Caldwell.

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