Deadly Convictions
by Philip Luber
A man goes berserk and kills three people. Should the killer's fate be in the hands of psychiatrists? What happens if the psychiatrists are wrong?
On Christmas Eve, 1982, Gordon Cardonick drove his Pinto onto Philadelphia's Schuylkill Expressway, pulled out his Ruger rifle, and started shooting. When the carnage was over, two men and a ten-year-old girl were dead and five others were seriously wounded.
The responsibility for determining the mental state of the "Christmas Eve Sniper" falls on Dr. Thomas Whitney, one of Pennsylvania's most brilliant forensic psychiatrists. Whitney's scrupulous integrity, gift for explaining the nuances of human behavior, and eloquence invariably hold sway with jurors. At Whitney's urging, Cardonick is found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Whitney's hospital for treatment.
The bombshell comes six months later. At a recommitment hearing, Cardonick claims he was faking it -- and proves he was a contract killer paid to do a job. The legal dilemma is unsolvable: the court can either let a cold-blooded killer walk free or commit a sane man to a mental institution.
Around this powerful premise, Philip Luber constructs his riveting and timely first novel, Deadly Convictions.
After the Christmas Eve Sniper's release, Dr. Whitney finds himself under attack from all sides. He's vilified by the press and removed from his position at the hospital. His whole career is in jeopardy, and he is wracked by self-doubt. Was he manipulated and fooled by a cold-blooded killer? Or did Whitney lose his objectivity through his professional interest in Cardonick's vulnerable wife Denise?
All along, there are the letters. Anonymous letters, mildly threatening at first, they now explode with a barely suppressed violence. Who could be sending them? A former patient? A jealous colleague? Someone seeking to exact justice that has been denied? Totally alone, with public opinion against him, Whitney realizes he must take matters into his own hands...
With a command that is astonishing in a first novelist, Philip Luber spins a mesmerizing tale that is at once a terrifying revenge thriller and a disturbing, provocative exploration of one of our legal system's thorniest issues...as he exposes the insanity plea to this nations's vision of morality and justice.
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