The Jury is Back - Hardcover

by Croix Ben Lazzara (Author), B. M. Reade (Author), Joyce Lazzara (Artist)

Sammy Carrara, Jr. has been waiting for twelve agonizing hours to find out if the jury will find him not guilty so he can be set free, or guilty and die in the electric chair. He had moved from Tampa to Anna Maria Island to start a new life as a charter boat captain and get away from the bad influences that landed him in prison. But it is the late Seventies and reefer madness is sweeping across the country. Unable to resist the lure of big money and his thirst for adventure, he gets involved in pot smuggling off the West Coast of Florida. Things go south, and he finds himself charged with the first degree murder of a deputy sheriff.

Sammy calls on his old friends, Ybor City private investigators Bejamin Blanc and his partner Chino, to assist his lawyer Mark Hammer to try to save his life. He insists he is being framed. The prosecutors claim they have a mountain of evidence, including the murder weapon, to convict him, and strap him into Old Sparky, Florida's infamous electric chair.

Getting ready for trial, Blanc and Chino travel from New Orleans to Key West, searching for witnesses that will prove Sammy's alibi. Along the way they encounter a stunning Bourbon Street stripper, and a collection of shifty, offbeat characters. The journey turns hazardous and eventually deadly, leaving them having to defend themselves from mysterious enemies, bent on doing them harm.

The hard-fought trail takes unexpected twists and turns. The tenacious prosecutors present a compelling case that Sammy had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to commit the crime. Fighting against insurmountable odds, Hammer, Blanc and Chino battle to the end trying to save Sammy's life. Now, Sammy's fate is in the hands of the jury, and no one can predict what the jury will decide.