PRAISE FOR ADAM MITZNER
The Best Friend
“This is a well-constructed, compelling legal thriller that deals perceptively with guilt and retribution, all set on a firm basis of love.”
—Booklist
A Matter of Will
“Business, blood, and deception help make this an exciting and fast-moving yarn. Fine fare for thriller fans.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“[An] engrossing thriller from Mitzner (Dead Certain). The action never flags in this exciting cautionary tale.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Mitzner is a master at making the complex understandable for the average reader while not letting the intricate details of the subject matter that supports his story weigh it down . . . A Matter of Will [is] a perfect vacation read.”
—Bookreporter
“Mitzner really knows how to craft a page-turning mystery. A cover-to-cover read.”
—Press & Guide
Dead Certain
An Amazon Charts Most Sold and Most Read Book
Authors on the Air Finalist for Book of the Year
“Dead Certain is dead-on terrific . . . It’s an entertaining and riveting work that will more than hold your interest.”
—Bookreporter
“Consistently compelling . . . Adam Mitzner is a master of the mystery genre.”
—Midwest Book Review
“There are several twists and turns along the way . . . creating a big amount of tension.”
—The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
“[Dead Certain’s] leading coincidence, which is quite a whopper, is offset by an equally dazzling surprise . . . It packs enough of a punch to make it worth reading.”
—Kirkus Reviews
A Conflict of Interest
A Suspense Magazine Book of the Year
“A heady combination of Patricia Highsmith and Scott Turow, here’s psychological and legal suspense at its finest. Adam Mitzner’s masterful plotting begins on tiptoe and morphs into a sweaty gallop, with ambiguity of character that shakes your best guesses, and twists that punch you in the gut. This novel packs it. A terrific read!”
—Perri O’Shaughnessy
“Mitzner’s assured debut . . . compares favorably to Presumed Innocent . . . Mitzner tosses in a number of twists, but his strength lies in his characters and his unflinching depiction of relationships in crisis. This gifted writer should have a long and successful career ahead of him.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A Case of Redemption
An American Bar Association Silver Gavel Nominee for Fiction
“Head and shoulders above most.”
—Publishers Weekly
Losing Faith
“Tightly plotted, fast-paced . . . Startling . . . A worthy courtroom yarn that fans of Grisham and Turow will enjoy.”
—Kirkus Reviews
The Girl from Home
“An engrossing little gem.”
—Kirkus Reviews
OTHER TITLES BY ADAM MITZNER
The Best Friend
A Matter of Will
Never Goodbye
Dead Certain
The Girl from Home
Losing Faith
A Case of Redemption
A Conflict of Interest
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2021 by Adam Mitzner.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781542005760
ISBN-10: 1542005760
Cover design by Faceout Studio
For Susan, my partner in the perfect marriage
CONTENTS
Start Reading
PART ONE
1
2
3
4
PART TWO
5
6
7
8
9
PART THREE
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
PART FOUR
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
Jessica thought about...
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Owen had always assumed that the first funeral he would attend would be his own. Such a morbid thought would have been foreign to most teenagers, who invariably believed they were immortal. Owen’s classmates were forever testing the thesis—driving while drunk, taking drugs of dubious origin, and vaping anything. They always lived to tell the tale, proving they’d been right all along: they could never die.
For Owen, however, there was no tempting fate in this way. Before he was old enough to grasp the indestructibility that other teenagers believed to be their birthright, Death had entered his inner circle. Once admitted, Death remained front and center in Owen’s thoughts. So much so that Owen eventually thought of Death as a friend—a confidant. Someone who listened to him when no else did.
Everyone else in his life was always talking—about how it was all going to be okay, how brave or strong he was, or what a fighter he was. Even at thirteen, Owen knew it was a pack of lies. No one could predict whether he would live or die. He wasn’t strong or brave or a fighter. In fact, some days he felt so weak that he couldn’t get out of bed. He lived in a state of constant terror. More often than not, rather than fighting it, he succumbed to that dread.
Every time he did, Owen realized the one central fact of his existence: everyone was always lying to him.
Everyone except Death.
Death spoke the truth, whether Owen wanted to hear it or not. Death had no interest in Owen’s feelings, in keeping his spirits high, or in stopping his mother’s tears. Death didn’t give two shits if he was having a good day, if it was his birthday or Christmas, or if he was up to handling bad news.
Death’s only allegiance was to the truth.
What Death told Owen was simple: It had not chosen him because he was special or he could handle it or it would build his character. Death acted without any justification whatsoever, making selections at random.
In short, Death was unfair, and Death owned it.
And then, with no more warning than it had given when it entered his life, Death departed when the doctors told Owen that his cancer was in remission.
“You get to start your life all over again now,” his mother said.
“Think about how lucky that is, O,” his father said. “Most people would give anything for a second chance, and you have one, buddy.”
In the years that followed, Owen was surprised at how much he missed Death’s company. He was more than happy to forgo the chemo sickness, of course, and God knew he enjoyed having his hair
