The Doorstep of Depravity: A Tale of Lawyers, Heirs, Greed, Deceit, Lust and Death.

The Doorstep of Depravity by Noah Bond

Events move from improbable to mysterious to incredible in Noah Bond's new legal thriller, The Doorstep of Depravity. The dust jacket promises "A Tale of Lawyers, Heirs, Greed, Deceit, Lust & Death." Add to that biological weaponry and identity theft and you have the stuff of the typical Grisham-wannabe novel. Although this book is somewhat long on plot and short on character development, Mr. Bond takes the reader on an unpretentious and enjoyable trip through the door and into the heart of depravity.

A simple prologue warns of ominous things to come. On a cold and stormy evening in upstate New York, a young woman sheds her jacket, sweater, and umbrella before she walks up the lane to a mansion. For some reason, she wants to arrive looking wet and bedraggled. Even more foreboding: She carries "tools of the trade" in her waterproof backpack--makeup, insulin, and a syringe--although she is not diabetic.

Once we cross over the threshold into the mansion as well as the novel, we quickly learn that money and greed define the very heart of depravity. The young woman who wants to appear to be something she is not is Kay Claussen, a doctoral student. Most improbably, she daydreams about viruses and epidemics while learning that she is the beneficiary of a multimillion-dollar inter vivos trust established by her recently deceased uncle. Kay has been out of touch with her family for many years, including her cousins Elke and Gunnar, who are to receive smaller but substantial specific bequests and legacies. The catch for Kay is that Uncle Rupert feared that she would turn into a spinster, so he inserted a proviso into the trust declaration requiring that any beneficiary must not only survive him by 60 days but also prove an intention to procreate.

This starts the wheels turning. Cousin Gunnar, the successor trustee, hires a bright and savvy big-firm lawyer, Bob Brandt. Kay turns to Grace O'Higgins, an equally attractive but somewhat inexperienced solo practitioner. Grace files a lawsuit to protect her client's interests, and while she struggles with the legal issues and a smoldering interest in Bob Brandt, the seemingly mousey old-maid-to-be Kay quickly digs up a prospective husband. After a videotaped ceremony, cousins Gunnar and Elke and the court reporter succumb to a mysterious virus. Guess who's responsible for the mini-epidemic?

Although initially this novel develops slowly--partly because of the author's desire to explain the complexities of trust litigation--the final third of the story unfolds at a fast pace. Sociopathic Kay is overcome with greed. By marrying under suspicious circumstances and finishing off her beneficiary cousins, she receives the entire trust corpus: $10 million. Yet, that is not enough. Her scheme to defraud the government out of its fair share of estate taxes causes Grace and Bob to finally open their eyes to the deception and ultimately draws the scrutiny of a trio of nefarious government agents.

Noah Bond has co-written a screenplay based on his first novel, NOMAD/Y, and plans a similar project for this book. This might explain why The Doorstep of Depravity reads more like a movie script than a novel, with page upon page of dialogue. The novel also suffers from unattractive typesetting and inconsistent editing. (One wonders about the need for an annoying apostrophe in "'phone.") And a final revelation at the end of this plot-driven work, although clever, actually creates more loose ends than it ties up. But these distractions are generally minimal in this otherwise fun and engaging novel.

Noah Bond's novel, The Doorstep of Depravity (254 pages) costs $16.95 and is currently available on amazon.com.

Christina C. McAdams is a career staff attorney at the Second District Court of Appeal in Tampa.