Almost a Murder

by Jody Seay, Jim Lloyd

Overview

“ALMOST A MURDER” is a nonfiction novel of literary realism.

It is a starkly honest portrayal of a cub lawyer accepting a case no one else will touch in an attempt to cope with his recent grief and entrenched reflex of inferiority. He is up against powerful financial, social and political pressures in this epic legal battle.

Tension builds during the three trials that comprise this case: police procedures, crime scene investigations, legal jostling, and the defendant's relationship with the victim. “ALMOST A MURDER” is fraught with emotion and unflinching in its portrayal of abuse of power, human frailty and depicting the hypocrisy of "civilized" society turning away from the unincorporated because they do not warrant notice.

No doubt the authors can construct a compelling story, but it is the flesh and blood characters, the dead-on dialects, and the searing honesty that brings this story to life.

In this REAL-LIFE COURTROOM LEGAL DRAMA, “ALMOST A MURDER”, authors Jody Seay and Jim Lloyd recount how a wealthy “Son of Oklahoma” is slain by his delicate foreign wife. To police, the brutal facts are clear: she cracked his skull with a bat, shot him twice, she strangled him, dumped his body; lied repeatedly and then, when cornered, she confessed. Everyone believes it’s going to be a slam-dunk murder trial and a quick trip to lethal injection.

But cub lawyer, Lloyd, reluctantly comes to her defense in this completely lopsided contest. He puts his family and future in jeopardy to defend a killer with no friends, no money, and who barely speaks English. Together the defendant and Jim stand against powerful political and financial forces in an epic battle between retribution and truth in the Oklahoma legal system. Ultimately this TRUE CRIME THRILLER is one of the most studied legal clashes in US law today.

Written by an award-winning author and the lawyer who defended this case, “ALMOST A MURDER”, showcases their stunning ability to capture pivotal moments and to reveal vulnerability. This provides readers an unparalleled “you are there” view of the headline-making trial with personalities on display. And the regional tone is captured perfectly. It's a sensational battle... drama, humanity, moral dilemma and, yes, even painful self-examination as it happened in this great Oklahoma courtroom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938282218
Publisher:	Koho Pono, LLC
Publication date:	07/30/2018
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Jody Seay is an award-winning author whose first novel, THE SECOND COMING OF CURLY RED, won First Prize for Fiction at the Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference, and then went on to become a Finalist in the prestigious Oregon Book Awards. Her musical play (BUNKIN' WITH YOU IN THE AFTERLIFE) was professionally produced and performed in Portland, Oregon. Her numerous essays and short stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country. Even though Jody swears she loves to write, she also maintains that writing makes her self-absorbed and grumpy for extended periods of time. Sometimes, she also breaks out in a rash, but, usually, that only happens when her computer crashes. Technology is hard for her, which brings her deep shame and makes her mean. She swears she'll get better at it, but, really, she never does. Luckily, she has other strengths, and, thank goodness for that! ALMOST A MURDER is Jody Seay's third book.

Co-author Jim Lloyd has been honored by the Oklahoma Bar Association, named in Who's Who in American Law, and is a member of the Missouri and Oklahoma Bar Associations, the Oklahoma Association for Justice and was invited by Melvin Belli to become a Lifetime Trustee of the prestigious Melvin Belli Society. The Oklahoma Bar Association honored Jim Lloyd as the Outstanding Young Lawyer for the State of Oklahoma early in his career. In part, he was recognized for his volunteer service to the community. He was asked to write an advice column, "Ask a Lawyer" in the Tulsa World newspaper which ran for years. Lloyd also ran booths at the Tulsa State Fair as part of a bar association community outreach program to let people know about their legal rights. Jim was also the chairman of the Tulsa County Speakers Bureau explaining to elementary school children through high school students what it is like to be a lawyer. Mr. Lloyd also performed critical work as an Oklahoma Commissioner tasked with investigating the race riots of 1921. He uncovered and saved important evidence before they were destroyed. Jim, his wife, Nancy, and their son, Buddy, run Lloyd & Lloyd, a "mom-and-pop" law firm in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – The Night I Almost Killed My Son

Chapter 2 – How I Almost Lost It All

Chapter 3 – How She Almost Got Away With It

Chapter 4 – The Case I Almost Didn’t Take

Chapter 5 – The Love That Almost Wasn’t

Chapter 6 – The Bulwark Of Liberty – How It’s Almost Perfect

Chapter 7 – Almost A Family

Chapter 8 – Almost Native America

Chapter 9 – Almost Persuaded

Chapter 10 – Almost Broke But, Still, Unbroken

Chapter 11 – A Special Souvenir: Almost Lost

Chapter 12 – Almost A Trial

Chapter 13 – My Opening Statement: Almost Perfect

Chapter 14 – Almost Picture-Perfect

Chapter 15 – Pride Goeth Before A Fall Almost Always

Chapter 16 – Almost The Best Detective

Chapter 17 – Honesty Is (Almost) The Best Policy

Chapter 18 – Almost A Witness

Chapter 19 – An Educated Guess (Is Still Only Almost Factual)

Chapter 20 – Almost His Brother’s Keeper

Chapter 21 – A Life & Death Almost Examined

Chapter 22 – The Almost Successful March Of The Whores

Chapter 23 – Almost Human

Chapter 24 – Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Almost Judged

Chapter 25 – Rounding Third, Almost Home

Chapter 26 – Home Again, No Almost About It

Chapter 27 – Another Page, Almost Turned

Epilogue – No Going Back, Not Ever

Editorial Reviews

“Every now and then a monster writing talent rockets into the literary world. Such a writer is Jody Seay. There is something about the way she magically strings words together that makes you just proud to be a member of the human race.” - Susan Chernak McElroy, NY Times best-selling author

“The reader invests themselves absolutely. Who wouldn't want a ‘Jim Lloyd’ to defend them when it really matters?” - Mark Lindberg, Attorney & Business Law Professor at Oral Roberts University

“The regional tone is captured perfectly as are the insightful portrayal of the lawyers, judges, family members, and others involved in this real-life battle. The authors depict all the drama and humanity that is manifest in American courtrooms.” - Jaki Harvell, children book author

“Forty years ago the law profession was much different; many of us gave lip-service to real ‘justice for all’. However, you, Jim, at the risks of your reputation and financial disaster made it real – not always pretty – but real. And now, in this book, you capture for us the behavior of the characters involved and you shine a light that glimpses their soul... their very being. This makes it all the more overpowering.” - John W. Klenda, Lawyer

“[Jody Seay’s] remarkably confident debut novel of heartache and redemption... Written with a firm command of vernacular speech and down-home metaphors, the narrative holds attention with charmingly quirky characters and a good sense of place.” - Publisher's Weekly review of “The Second Coming of Curly Red”, October 1999

“Jim's unique understanding of the law brings this story of a young Thai woman who killed her husband to life. His struggle to balance the legal profession with his personal life in order to save his client makes this book a real page-turner.” - Ed Lutz, Attorney

“... a candid, compelling, compassionate and illuminating [book]. Highly recommended.” - Wisconsin Bookwatch review of author Jody Seay's “The Second Coming of Curly Red”, February 2000

“Seay’s characters are originals and well-developed. She has a good ear for how people talk and a gift for layering emotional impact into her chapters with a powerful yet light touch...” - Oriana Green, Just Out, January 2000

“Jody Seay handed me her book (Dead in a Ditch) and said, 'I hope you laugh so hard you bust your spleen.' I'm happy to say that my spleen survived intact – but my pancreas is still in a splint. Jody Seay is ONE FUNNY WRITER.” - Jerry Juhl, three-time Emmy Award winner, former head writer for The Muppets Show and Jim Henson Productions

From the Publisher

2019-04-01
A novice attorney struggles with one of the most challenging and melodramatic cases of his young career.

For this serpentine, true-crime dramatic depiction, novelist and essayist Seay (Dead in a Ditch, 2011, etc.) effectively collaborated with debut author Lloyd, an Oklahoma litigator who, in distinctive detail, describes the yearlong, first-degree murder case that would shake up his early days in the courtroom. Escorting Seay to the Oklahoma locations crucial to the events and drawing from a memory bolstered by a trove of newspaper articles and court transcripts, Lloyd engrossingly pieces together a story of crime and blame. The case began in 1982, a time when Lloyd, a cub lawyer having only tried (and lost) one jury trial, was engulfed in grief after losing his newborn son. He channeled great effort into examining a homicide involving Noi Kanchana Mitchell, a wife charged with the ruthless murder of her husband, Bobby, in a case that, in Lloyd's words, would take "all of the energy and physical reserve I could muster" and endanger his marriage and jeopardize his financial stability. Thankfully, this intriguing setup delivers on all of its promises as readers are immediately thrust into the story of Bobby Mitchell and his Thai wife, Noi, and the nagging feeling Lloyd experienced that she was innocent of his murder even though the odds were stacked against her. The primary evidence, which pointed to her direct involvement in her husband's strangling, shooting, and corpse disposal, included the statements of an accomplice and Noi's audiotaped confession. Upon questioning her, the attorney discovered a language barrier and some emotional trauma, which became problematic to sleuthing the case. Lloyd, clever and determined, discounted Noi's confession, believing it to have been coerced by police, and through preliminary hearings, courtroom dramatics, key witnesses, misled speculation, and cruel accusations, the truth, while untidy, finally emerged in grand fashion. Despite three trials, fluctuating self-confidence, and numerous roadblocks, Lloyd triumphed. His tale provides tantalizing, exhilarating fodder for Seay to mold and craft into a rollicking murder trial that moves swiftly despite a surfeit of heavily detailed events and many supporting characters. Besides enticing Perry Mason fans, this book should please readers devilishly curious about the intricate workings of the justice system and the trial-by-jury process.

A bracing, spirited true-crime narrative that reads like fiction but is very much real and rooted in the brutality and injustices of contemporary life.

Kirkus Reviews