Probable Cause

Plot

When Gideon Page, reluctant hero of Expert Testimony, is fired from his law firm, he doesn't know that the worst is yet to come. Now, in Probable Cause, he takes on the case of a black psychologist accused of manslaughter, and suddenly finds himself on a treacherous path leading to financial scandal, interracial sex, white supremacists, and, ultimately, the explosive racial tensions lurking not so far beneath the surface in Blackwell County, Arkansas. Gideon's client, Dr. Andrew Chapman, is accused of causing the death of a mentally retarded patient during a risky experimental treatment. Now Gideon must prove that Chapman's romantic involvement with the patient's mother and her desire to be free of her retarded daughter do not add up to murder. And he must fight his own client, in the courtroom and out, over defense strategy. Also to be contended with are an ambitious prosecuting attorney with a political agenda; Gideon's former employers, who are threatening to sue him; and a local TV reporter whose interest in Gideon extends beyond the news. And as if all that weren't enough, Gideon must make ends meet by representing the kind of clients no one else will - such as the woman who served her husband a rat muffin for breakfast, and an old lady accused of hanky-panky in a nursing-home closet. Jousting with judges, prosecutors, and clients, while bemused as ever with his adolescent daughter and the opposite sex in general, Gideon Page faces the most complex case of his career in Probable Cause.