Vail's case becomes more complicated than he expected when a psychologist, Dr. Richard Gere stars as Martin Vail, a famed defense lawyer who volunteers his services to Aaron Stampler ( Edward Norton), a Kentucky teenager charged with the murder of a Chicago archbishop.Ĭovered with blood, Aaron was captured after a foot chase broadcast live on TV, making a gleeful Vail certain that he could raise his profile by defending the obviously guilty suspect.Īssigned to prosecute is Assistant District Attorney Janet Venable ( Laura Linney), who is Vail's ex-girlfriend. ( Jan.A high-profile slaying becomes the case of an ambitious attorney's career in this legal thriller based on the novel by William Diehl. 50,000 first printing major ad/promo movie rights to Paramount Literary Guild special featured selection. Diehl builds delicious tension, keeping the reader off balance right up to the gavel-pounding finale. Psychiatrist Molly Arrington blows the case wide open by unearthing a terrifying secret that Vail springs in court. PI Tommy Goodman digs up some nasty news about the bishop (not what the reader expects) and uncovers a childhood of abuse and mysterious deaths in Stampler's Kentucky hometown. Vail is impressed by Stampler, a runaway from the bishop's haven, Savior House, and builds a maverick defense team to butt heads with vengeful prosecutor Jane Venable.

It seems like an ironclad case-psycho slasher carves up ``the Saint of Lakeview Drive''-and a hostile judge appoints Vail as pro bono defense attorney, hoping to publicly humble him. After discovering the mutilated body of Archbishop Richard Rushman in the rectory of his church, police find Aaron Stampler cowering in a confessional, blood-soaked and gripping the murder weapon. Vail has vexed the political machine by winning a multimillion-dollar brutality judgment against the city, county and state police, but the powers that be think they see a way to pay him back.

Ringing dazzling changes on the suspense format he worked so successfully in Sharkey's Machine and four other thrillers, Diehl here focuses on the maneuvers of Chicago defense attorney Martin Vail, a prosecutor's worst nightmare.

Primal fear novel