Privileged Information.

• Author: Staesser, Daniel
• Position: Book Review

by Terry Lewis

In his new novel, Privileged Information, Judge Terry Lewis weaves his second legal mystery tale involving attorney Ted Stevens and Florida's Big Bend territory. Amid cash flow problems in the firm and a drinking problem that has resulted in Stevens' suspension from the practice of law, his partner Paul Morganstein stumbles across a case that could solve their financial woes, but also could raise a whole new set of questions.

Morganstein's client, Jimmie Ray Canley, has been charged with the murder of a Pinnacle Paper Company executive. Conley fits the profile as a member of an environmental extremist group called the "Swamp Rats," and he can be placed at the scene of the crime.

As the physical evidence mounts--from a spray paint can with Conley's fingerprints to shoe prints in his size found at the scene--Morganstein becomes increasingly convinced that his client had something to do with the murder.

During the investigation, details surface about a murder that nobody knew happened 30 years earlier. This evidence suggests that Conley may have been involved in killing his best friend--Morganstein's younger brother David--who had presumably committed suicide by parking his car on a train track.

Morganstein is faced with the dilemma of whether to disclose privileged information in the interest of greater justice, thereby vindicating his brother's death, or to honor...