The 21st Century Chronicles of Thugg the Barbarian King

Book excerpt: At age 55, John Garcia is one of Albuquerque's most successful lawyers. His skill at defending insurance and corporate conglomerates has won the praise of the firm's other key partners, and the money he bills, their envy. Still, something nags at him...life has become nothing but business. He feels trapped, driven to keep up on the one hand and to find a way out on the other. But he has a wife and children, a family used to the good things in life that money brings. Into this setting comes a young Chicano, Bernardo Soliz, charged with the attempted murder of the mayor's daughter. John believes the boy is innocent and, despite the demands of his work, he decides to defend the young man. As he takes on the Soliz trial while trying to keep up with his other work, another challenge appears. Persons from his military past in Vietnam surface to threaten him...unless they get what they want. John is shaken. He needs time to face this new menace. But how? He's in the midst of the boy's trial. The trial is going badly, coming to an inescapable conclusion in the face of eyewitness identifications of Bernardo as the assailant. As the trial and events from his military past take their toll, another threat descends upon John...his marriage is coming apart. Amid the twists and turns in the Soliz case, he finds himself in a moral quandary. He fears his personal problems may have gotten in the way of representing Bernardo to the fullest. He feels he should hang in and fight for the boy's life. Guilt hangs over him. As the Soliz case comes to its double-twisted conclusion, John begins to get a grip on the mysterious foreign threat from the past, but not before it jeopardizes the national security of the United States.