Public Defender in Action #11

Richard Manning, a public defender, finds himself defending Jake Levchek against assault charges brought by muscle man Harry Koenig—only to discover the real crime runs much deeper. When both Levchek and Manning come under fire from mysterious enforcers, Manning suspects a criminal syndicate is pulling the strings, and he's determined to trace the operation all the way to its source. What Manning uncovers in his investigation takes him far beyond a simple courtroom case and into dangerous territory where the stakes are far higher than anyone anticipated.

When Byron Cramm accuses George Lewis of stealing $22,000, both brothers confess—each insisting he's the real culprit to protect the other. Public Defender Richard Manning smells a setup and digs into Cramm's own finances, uncovering a scheme far darker than a simple theft. Manning must expose the truth in court to free an innocent man trapped by loyalty and a manipulator's desperation.

Three robbers strike a safe, wound a watchman, and vanish—leaving behind only a battered Army .45 with filed serial numbers. When investigators trace the gun's history through its previous owners across multiple states, they uncover a chain of possession that could lead them to the criminals responsible.

Richard Manning faces an impossible task when his client, Willy Bohm, claims innocence in a robbery he was caught at the scene of—but can offer no credible defense. With only a cheap costume ring as a lead, the determined public defender must trace the real thief through an underworld gang before time runs out. As Manning closes in on the actual culprit, he discovers that getting the truth out may be harder than proving it in court.

When a young college-educated detective named Jim Barry joins veteran cop Mike on the stakeout of a grocery store suspected of fencing stolen gems, the two must work together to gather evidence against the elusive proprietor, Loo Tong. As days pass with no breakthrough, an unexpected detail about the store's resident pet ferret catches Jim's attention and sets the investigation on a surprising new path. A clever puzzle that proves there's more than one way to solve a case—sometimes it takes fresh thinking to crack a cold lead wide open.

When Tim Bennett stumbles upon his old college roommate Eric von Sterner in a forbidden Iron Curtain city, what seems like a stroke of luck quickly turns suspicious—Von Sterner asks Tim to lend his clothes and papers to help smuggle a political prisoner out of the country, but a series of small details don't add up. As Tim pieces together the real scheme and races to alert the authorities, he finds himself caught in a dangerous game of wits against a man willing to stop at nothing to escape.