Death on a High Floor

In Charles Rosenberg's intriguing legal thriller, "Death on a High Floor", Robert Tarza arrives at his law office at his usual hour of 6:00 a.m. only to stumble across the body of Managing Partner, Simon Rafer. Simon has a dagger in his back, a very familiar looking dagger it turns out. Does just being the unlucky discoverer of the body make you a "person of interest"? Apparently so, according to a homicide detective named Spritz, although the dead man is so universally disliked you would have to stand in line to get an opportunity to off him. As the circumstantial evidence piles up, Tarza is eventually charged with Murder One. Out on bail, Tarza and Jenna James (a young and brainy female associate) are forced to play detective. Somewhere out there lurking behind a valuable coin deal gone bad, rumblings of drug dealing, and lying witnesses, there's a real killer, but no one else is looking for him. Unlike most legal thrillers the court room drama all takes place at the preliminary hearing, not in a jury trial. This is very interesting stuff, because the judge now becomes a major player and a character you won't soon forget. Mr. Rosenberg, a practicing attorney and legal script consultant to prime time TV shows, knows whereof he writes. "Death on a High Floor" is right up there with the best of this genre.