Showing results by author "J. E. Gessler" in All Categories

Hugh Kerr, famous Los Angles defense attorney, his new wife and longtime personal assistant Ellen, their "adopted" parents, Lt. Hank Wade and his wife Mary, Hugh's best friend and private investigator, Jack Merrick, along with the LA District Attorney, B.B. Bond all belong to the exclusive "Hugh Kerr Gang". Good times or bad, the gang members all support each other. The Conundrum of the Executed Defendant pushes the boundaries of both good times and bad. The Gang has some fun designing a fixed raffle, so one of their own will be the predetermined winner of a much-needed home improvement ...

The post-Civil War era in the American West was a troubled, turbulent time. With hatreds still seething, men often took it upon themselves to enforce their own brand of justice. When they did, it brought them in conflict with those few who attempted to apply a standardized set of rules and regulations to a rawboned civilization. Convincing men who did not fall into the category of outlaws but who were, rather, self-appointed vigilantes to follow the law was not a simple task, yet that was what Marshal Claw Kiley faced when he confronted a gang of mountain men from West Virginia, out to ...

Although short-staffed, the Kamer/Jackson Institute continues to admit students that require all the time, skill and dedication Drs. Robert Kamer and Samuel Jackson can give them. Included among these newcomers are a boy diagnosed as suffering from “failure to thrive,” a man experiencing the devastating effects of drug withdrawal and a convicted arsonist described by a judge as “inveterate.” An interview with a psychiatrist applying for a job goes terribly wrong and “Mother” Mary Schaeffer must try and hold things together, while Sam’s therapy for Toby includes the services of...

“Target’d” Summary Never was a ship more aptly named. While on a routine mission to the outer quadrant of the galaxy, the star cruiser Target is struck by an unknown force, immediately killing two-thirds of the crew. Those remaining include Commander Joshua Terry, who assumes command after the death of the captain. Discovering only four of the bridge crew alive and two of those critically wounded, he begins a search of the ship for the remainder of the survivors. Along those few he finds Brian Hardy, the ship’s resident minister and unofficial guru, and Helen Fitzgerald, a language ...

A knock came on the door in the dead of night. On the verge of Civil War, such a summons meant trouble and danger. To ignore it offered momentary reprieve for the Ward family: it also meant shirking duty. Such was not in their make-up, for the Wards, otherwise known as the landlocked "Kansas Pirates," had taken the buccaneer's oath to protect one another, and, by association, the oppressed, against tyranny and injustice.Their help was urgently needed to guide runaway slaves from "Bleeding Kansas" across the river to safer ground. Barbara Nelander-Ward, former first mate aboard the Bottom ...

The theme of this novel focuses on the tragic, near fatal shooting of police lieutenant Hank Wade which was developed in the previous book, “The Conundrum of the Jettisoned Jury.” Interestingly, when attorney Hugh Kerr accepts a completely unrelated case, a severe conflict develops within the Kerr Gang. The strain of the unresolved shooting of their adopted father and his slow, complicated recovery, combined with the uncertainty over the “jettisoned jury” create tensions which finally threaten to fracture the close relationships established between Hugh, Jack Merrick and the Wades. ...

“Blue Moon”Summary The Indian legend stated that a red-haired white boy, born of earthquake and comet in a month with two full moons, would save the tribes along the Mighty Mississippi from oppression by the white-skinned invaders from the east. As the first steamboat to navigate the western waters, under the charter of Robert Fulton, himself, made its appearance, the early pioneers were terrified by the noise and the smoke. Calling it the devil’s invention in superstitious awe, and perhaps more accurately, a “floating teakettle,” the magnificent boat traversed the unknown with a ...

The Conundrum of the Decapitated Detective Hugh Kerr Mystery Series Book I The corpse in the morgue had been beheaded, the hands severed and the bottoms of the feet scorched, making identification next to impossible. The man's identity hinges on personal belongings found near the body, and the formality of having his two best friends view the remains and agree with the name on the driving license. Failure to do so would consign the mangled body to a nameless grave; begrudging a positive I.D. would be admitting the detective was really dead. Neither option is acceptable. Not to Hugh Kerr, ...

The perfect, if delayed, honeymoon of famous Los Angeles defense attorney Hugh Kerr and his wife Ellen Kerr nee Thorne, is abruptly shortened when tragedy befalls the Kerr Gang. Lieutenant Hank Wade, the newlywed’s adopted father, is shot in cold blood directly outside the police station. Hugh is literally forced into the center of this very personal nightmare when Richard Baldwin, the man accused of the heinous crime, demands Kerr take his case or he threatens to defend himself. This puts district attorney Bartholomew Bond on the spot because Baldwin is a wealthy, influential man and his...

Hugh Kerr Mystery Series The Conundrum of Shooting Fish in a Barrel Book XIV This adventure begins with Ellen's best friend's request for help. Judy’s phone call alters the couple’s plans for the weekend. Instead of relaxing and preparing for the expected arrival of their first child, Hugh, and the very pregnant Ellen Kerr rush to northern Los Angeles County where a major Western movie location is situated. The excitement of being on an actual production set is seriously hampered by the unexpected and tragic death of one of the picture’s headliners. Lieutenant Hank Wade is already at ...

The Conundrum of the Haunting Halloween Party Hugh Kerr's first Halloween party was not what anyone had anticipated. The excitement, planning, shopping, decorating and set up for the Halloween extravaganza was nearly enough to guarantee a successful event. Unfortunately, just not nearly enough. The treats were completely forgotten, leaving only a trick which was so horrific many lives would be forever altered, and not for the better. Hugh Kerr, his wife Ellen and the whole Kerr gang would have to rely on and believe in each other more than they ever thought possible to solve this ghostly ...

The Believer: New Beginnings Book 1 Dr. Robert Kamer, the world renown psychiatrist and financier, had a secret very few of his colleagues could even guess, and he was willing to go to extreme measures to keep it that way. He was a boy genius from a wealthy family. With a gift for languages and a photographic memory, he graduated college and medical school well before his contemporaries even finished high school. Rob's one love was his younger brother, Toby. Born with a learning disability, it was Toby's condition that motivated the young genius to pursue a career in psychiatry. Rob's ...

New Beginnings Book II The Heretic Plot Summary The happiness and completeness she brought to both the world renown psychiatrist, and his autistic brother 's lives was nearly perfect – just not perfect enough to last forever. She understood, saw the bigger picture, the importance of supporting the Doctor's (dream) ultimate goal. The creation of a school and safe house where mentally and physically impaired patients would not be simply treated but would learn ways to cope in society. A school so receptive everyone…could take the roles of teachers and healers. She understood to move ahead...

The car rally was to be the height of the Christmas season, with the winner receiving an exotic sports car. All the “best people” were invited, including the Kerrs and the Bonds, pitting Los Angeles’ premiere defense lawyer against the city’s district attorney in an exciting and challenging venue outside the courtroom. That, by itself would have been enough to attract attention, but the car rally and its “treasure trove” unwittingly provided the two men with an unusual conundrum: working the same side of a case. Their unholy alliance lasted just long enough to provide sparks in ...

“Arrow Song” In 1968, the newly-opened Kamer/Jackson Institute represented a creative and innovative approach to psychiatric medicine, combining the talents of Robert Kamer and Samuel Jackson, two physicians who dreamed of challenging conventional therapy by offering new approaches to the treatment of the mentally and physically handicapped of all ages and incomes. For Dr. Kamer, the K/J I had an additional and all-consuming purpose: providing a school where his brother, Toby, would thrive. Matters are taken out of Rob and Sam’s hands, however, as Toby’s development is guided in a ...

Summary “The Conundrum of the Blundering Bear” Tragedy strikes while Hugh and Ellen Kerr are on a working holiday in the Big Bear region of California. While returning to the lodge late at night, Ellen swerves to avoid what she believes to be a bear standing in the road. The car plummets down a gully, trapping her inside. She manages to escape with the assistance of a stranger but then faces criminal charges from the local sheriff. Complicating matters, when a child is reported missing, Hugh and Jack are called upon to help search for her. This entangles them in a murder case when the ...

The Hugh Kerr Mystery Series “The Conundrum of the Absconded Attorney” (Book II in the Series) The story begins in December 1955 with defense attorney Hugh Kerr pondering his fate. Stinging from the loss of a murder trial he believes he should have won, and still emotionally shattered from his own recent brush with the law that saw him and his private secretary, Ellen Thorne, running from the police on an elaborate and grisly homicide charge, he questions the foundations upon which he has based his life. This takes him to a subject rarely broached, even to himself: the fact Christmas ...

Shy, almost to the point of disabling, Sebastian “Nox” Knox, the elder son and heir to his late mother’s estate, had to prove he was successful in his chosen position as a musician before age 30, or lose the quarter of a million dollar inheritance to his half-brother, Arthur. The youth stated out well, rising to the position of a virtuoso in a major orchestra, but a series of false rumors forced him to abandon that position. A growing lack of confidence led Nox to the life of a recluse and although he continued composing, fear prevented him from showing his work to others. Hugh Kerr, ...

After the attempted kidnapping of his wife, Ellen, Los Angeles attorney Hugh Kerr realizes the murder case against Daniel Jenkins is inextricably mixed up with his own tortured youth. In order to exonerate his client and clear up the twenty-year old murders of his parents and brother, he must turn to district attorney Bartholomew Bond for help. The idea of laying bare his past is not an easy one, but after confessing some details that link him to the four Canadians who actually perpetrated the crime, the prosecutor agrees to keep his secrets as long as justice is served. Cleverly deducing ...

Mr. Harold Poxie, owner of CANS news service, is coming to London. When editor Sweet McGraw threatens to introduce him to Gypsy if Kimbo doesn’t take the unappealing assignment to cover the sudden death of Mr. Goldfinch, the one of the company’s best clients, he reluctantly agrees. Anything to get her away from the old man’s clutches. As anticipated, the funeral is dull and dreary, with few useful quotes to gather for the obituary. One, however, strikes him as odd: the complaint from an elderly woman that the body appears desiccated. Waiting until the mourners have departed, Kimbo ...