Blood on the Table: A Novel

Famed defense attorney Gerry Spence is no stranger to courtroom dramas that have captivated national audiences. His handsome Wyoming outfits including leather jackets and cowboy boots were trademarks on television in the 1980s and 1990s. His courtroom exploits have been captured in many prior bestsellers that pack his tenacious defense of poor and disadvantaged subjects, often framed by overzealous police and prosecutors. Blood on the Table offers a different take. It is pure fiction in rural Wyoming. A young boy named Ringo is caught in a savage backcountry drama involving classmates, corrupt police officers, and violent infidelity. The writing is meant to keep the reader guessing as scenes shift from remote past to current past. However, the writing style feels orchestrated. One can imagine a meticulous Spence ‘reverse engineering’ the book with the desired outcome and fitting the novel around it. As the reader grapples with the darkness and cold inhumanity of rural Wyoming, there is very little humanity or humor to cut the bitter taste. The courtroom drama of someone wrongly accused is mildly entertaining, perhaps where Spence feels the most comfortable. Overall, the book feels long-drawn, artificial, and difficult to read. Spence seems out of form in the world of fictional legal dramas and fails to live up to his exploits on terra firma.