Sep 11, 2017

The Curse of Sacerdozio by Glen Aaron REVIEW + GIVEAWAY

Genre: Thriller / Suspense / Mystery

Publisher: BookBaby

Date of Publication: June 1, 2017

Number of Pages: 275

In Supreme Court books, there is seldom the intrigue of murder and of crime and punishment within the chambers. The Curse of Sacerdozio takes the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on a fictional journey that keeps you turning pages. As President Trump takes power, this tale raises questions about what influences drive him in judicial appointments, while at the same time entertaining the reader in a political and legal thriller.

The issues of abortion, marriage, and the conduct of Supreme Court Justices wrapped in judicial conspiracy to control the Court and Congress come into stark conflict. The power of the church and motivated thinking highly organized pressure groups like the Federalist Society and Opus Dei are revealed in this plot driven novel.

While the story of the protagonist, Tommy Jon, is a success story within itself, as he is the first Jicarilla Apache to graduate from Harvard Law School and clerk for a Supreme Court Justice, his downfall is in contesting the judicial philosophy of Justice Sacerdozio. When the judge is found dead floating in a hot mineral pool on a ranch retreat in West Texas, Tommy Jon becomes a target of the FBI in suspicion of murder. The climax of the novel is his trial in the Federal District Court in El Paso.

Underlying the plot, the reader will realize a serious concern about just who President Trump really is. The political conspiracy that has brought the religious right and the judiciary together is unfolding and coming to fruition, now, in Washington. The Curse Of Sacerdozio is fictional in its tale but realistic in its revelations.

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About The Author

Glen Aaron was born in Big Spring, Texas and raised in Midland. In 1962, while attending Baylor, he ran for State Representative from Midland at he age of 21. He lost that election in a runoff by 42 votes. Deciding politics was not for him, he graduated Baylor with a BA and moved on to the University of Texas law school. There, he won the Moot Court competition arguing before the Supreme Court of Texas sitting en banc. After acquiring his JD, Glen spent forty years in trial law and international business and banking. Today, he lives in Midland with his wife Jane Hellinghausen and two rottweilers. He enjoys writing and working with the Permian Basin Bookies. Author of: The Ronnie Lee and Jackie Bancroft Spencer Morgan Story, a tale of people, greed, envy, manipulation -- even crime; The Colonel George Trofimoff Story, the tale of America's highest ranking military officer convicted of spying; The Prison Experience; The Prison People.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website | Author Facebook | Book Facebook | Author Twitter

|Tommy Jon Twitter | Goodreads

My Review

The Curse of Sacerdozio posed an intriguing role reversal when Tommy Jon, a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sacerdozio, is framed for the judge's murder. In order to protect himself as he stands trial, Tommy Jon has to use all the legal skills he has learned to figure out how the judicial system might hit him. A short excerpt I thought matched this intriguing role reversal perfectly was when Tommy was first brought in and locked in the Detention Center. "He was locked in the cell and left alone. He thinks back on some of the criminal cases he briefed where he read that the defendant was placed in a single cell. The court transcript doesn't give you the feeling of what it is actually like. This is a cold, dark, strange place. He feels all alone." I appreciated the blend of the big picture aspects and the smaller details. There was so much depth and mixture of story lines that it remained fascinating as the passion author Glen Aaron had for these subjects poured out. The reader got a glimpse into native cultures, like the Jicarilla, Tommy Jon's tribe, which complemented the larger story of natives in their fight against the corruption in the US justice system. This story within the story added depth to Tommy Jon's anger. The Curse of Sacerdozio captures how the justice system wears blinders on certain subject matters. Those in power, both political and religious, seem to make decisions which will push their own personal agendas forward or which will assure them re-election by pushing the agendas of those who are paying their bills. Personally, I began following the journey to ban human trafficking via the internet and have seen firsthand how technicalities in the justice system are used as excuses to be blind to common sense and truth. The Curse of Sacerdozio got me emotionally riled up, which to me is the mark of a successful book. It provided insight and different perspectives into a variety of issues that resulted in my feeling almost as passionate as the author about the subject matter. I will remember this story and the outrage contained within for many moons.