The Deposition: A Novel

Columbia University law professor Linus Hampton has been accused of murdering his wife and New York socialite Ellen Hunt. The Hunt Family, one of the oldest and wealthiest families in the United States, use their own media conglomerate to expose Hampton daily in an effort to attain justice. Money must have been his motive. The prickly law professor stands to inherit hundreds of millions of dollars now that his wife is dead. Hampton must be sent to prison at all costs.

Yet inexplicably, despite the onslaught by the Hunt Family, Hampton is acquitted at his murder trial. Double jeopardy applies, and while he cannot be retried in criminal court, the court of public opinion has a different verdict. Hampton is free to walk the streets of Manhattan even if he is branded a murderer. The only recourse for the Hunts is to use their considerable influence over the insurance company to tie up their only daughter's estate. It would be repugnant for Hampton to profit from murdering his wife, inheriting a large portion of the family fortune.

All the while, Hampton has proclaimed his innocence. Now acquitted, he is suing Capstone Insurance and Finance-the institution withholding his inherited fortune at the insistence of the Hunt Family-in an effort to claim what is rightfully his by law. With the civil trial looming, Hampton must be deposed to get to the truth once and for all. On the other side of this deposition is a new life, whatever the outcome. He will either be destitute and forced into an ignominious existence, or he will be hundreds of millions of dollars richer and free to do what he wants-wherever he wants to do it. What becomes of the law professor hangs in the balance.