Book Details

The 1960s. An America on edge--the cold war, race riots, Vietnam. A frozen Midwestern Air Force town. A pair of gruesome sex murders. A black airman on trial. Will justice or bigotry prevail?

For Tony Jeffries, it’s a double-edged sword: a surprise promotion to captain in his first weeks as an Air Force JAG—and, right on its heels, an appointment as defense counsel in a near-unwinnable case. Two local women have been brutally raped and murdered, and the evidence points squarely at George Torrance, a black airman with a checkered past. The town’s and the base’s bigwigs are determined to make him pay. A slick veteran JAG is heading the prosecution. But is Torrance guilty, or is an innocent man being railroaded? The more Jeffries learns, the less certain he becomes. So does the reader, riding the twists and turns of the court-martial and its aftermath until the shocking final pages. Based on his own experiences as a young JAG, Russell Pelton’s The Sting of the Blue Scorpion—an edge-of-your-seat follow-up to his acclaimed The Dance of the Sharks—upholds the verdict: here’s an authoritative, highly entertaining legal storyteller.

 

About the Author

Russell Pelton

Russell Pelton served three years as a Judge Advocate in the United States Air Force after graduating from law school, primarily assigned to the SAC’s 379th Bomb Wing in northern Michigan. He personally witnessed how the tensions of the Cold War, the militant anti-war movement and the surging rise of the civil rights movement influenced many decisions made during the tumultuous 1960’s. After leaving the Air Force as a Captain, he was a highly successful litigator in Chicago. A graduate of DePauw University and The University of Chicago Law School, he lives in Chicago’s northern suburbs and is working on his next novel. He previously published the highly acclaimed novel, The Dance of the Sharks.

Also by Russell Pelton

The Dance of the Sharks
Enemy in the Shadows