Sideswiped: Book One of the Matt Blake Legal Thriller Series (Volume 1)

Sideswiped A Matt Blake Legal and Political Thriller You’re a famous courtroom lawyer at the top of your game. You’ve just signed up a huge wrongful death case. Your beautiful client’s husband was killed in a sideswipe car collision, and the evidence of defendant’s negligence is overwhelming. But something bothers you. Is the evidence too overwhelming? Your senior investigator starts to turn up some strange facts, facts that indicate that this may not be a negligence case at all. Is it a murder case? Matt Blake is a Chicago trial lawyer and highly decorated Marine combat veteran. After losing his beloved fiancée in a tragic car accident, he finds that he has more battles to fight: alcohol and drugs. He gradually realizes that his life is spiraling downward, and that he needs help with the battle. He seeks the help of Dr. Benjamin Weinberg, a psychiatrist who’s also a family friend and consultant to his law firm. With Dr. Weinberg’s help, Matt tames the monsters that sought to devour him. After rehab, he turns his attention to one of the most serious personal injury cases his firm has handled. It involved a sideswipe car accident in which his client’s husband, a famous political journalist, was killed. The case looked almost routine from a liability point of view. Numerous eyewitnesses gave sworn statements that they saw the defendant motorist talking on his cellphone just before his car slammed into the plaintiff’s husband. The eyewitness evidence pointed toward negligence. At first it looked like an open-and-shut personal injury case. But evidence began to mount quickly that the “accident” may have been intentional—that it may have been murder. But Matt and his team struggle with a big question: Why would James Spellman have been murdered? Matt finally meets the firm’s client, Diana Spellman, James Spellman’s widow. She’s a strikingly beautiful university professor and well-known writer. Matt, having licked his alcohol and drug problem, as well as the loss of his fiancée, finds himself swept off his feet by the lovely Diana Spellman. He shares his past drug and alcohol problems with her, and she shares her similar problems with him. Besides having lost lovers in similar type car accidents, Diana and Matt discover that their lives have a lot in common. But Diana has another problem—she’s a murder target. As James Spellman’s informal editor, she knew every story that her husband was working on before his death, stories that contained secrets—secrets that threaten the highest levels of government, secrets that someone or some group does not want out in the open, secrets for which they’re willing to murder in order to keep quiet. Matt’s attraction to Diana is mirrored by her attraction to him. It occurred to Diana that they were both playing a polite game of cat and mouse. So, one Monday morning Diana showed up at Matt’s office unannounced. She sat in front of his desk and looked him in the eyes. ”I love you Matt. I drop dead friggin’ love you.” But their love is soon complicated by assassination attempts on both Diana and Matt. They enter the FBI’s Witness Protection Program, which was not as protective as they expected. During a wild gunfight with terrorists who are trying to assassinate them, Diana risks her life to save Matt. What began as a routine personal injury case suddenly evolved into a vast terrorist conspiracy—and Diana was at the center of it all. Sideswiped is a crime drama, a legal thriller, a tale of terrorism, and finally, a compelling love story of two people who dedicate their lives to each other. It’s a story of enduring love, kept alive in the face of crippling fear. The book will grab you by the gut, as well as by the heart. Buy Sideswiped now for one of the greatest thrillers you’ll ever read.