The Corpse in the Road

Part of a series of nine mystery novels featuring San Mateo attorney Frank May <I>The Corpse in the Road</I> finds Frank reporting to his law practice one of primarily wills and trusts and a smattering of small business dealings and learning that one of his clients a man seeking help in claiming an inheritance killed a man. Frank has always avoided criminal law and wants to keep it that way but his client insists.</p>His client claims to have accidentally hit a man with his car on a lonely stretch of road in a remote area. In a panic he dumped the unidentified man's body in a ravine off the side of the road. Now a year later the client claims he's being blackmailed and needs Frank to be his intermediary. Frank reluctantly agrees and the initial drop of money sucks him into a web of circumstances that he must dissect when he realizes his client has failed to tell him the truth.</p>With his interweaving of the legal world blackmail and his sublime rendering of digging into a client's dirt Lawrence M. Friedman delivers an engrossing mystery laced with humor and rolled into a stellar debut novel.</p>