Stan Turner

In this first episode of the Stan Turner Mysteries, it's the tail end of the Vietnam War, and Stan, forced into the United States Marine Corps by a vicious twist of fate, must leave his wife and family, and report for duty. On his first day of boot camp, he unwittingly befriends a serial killer and soon finds himself on trial for the murder of his drill sergeant. Aided by a pretty nurse who wants him, and a reporter who wants his story, Stan desperately searches for the actual killer to prove his innocence.

Step into the shoes of Dallas attorney, Stan Turner, in the late 1970s as he begins the practice of law. Then hang on for the ride of your life as Stan immediately steps into a rattlesnake's nest and has to do some fancy two-steppin' to avoid a lethal strike from his own clients. When Stan's wife, Rebekah, is arrested for murder and a client turns out to be a ghost, Stan trades in his legal pad for a detective's notebook and goes to work to solve these most perplexing mysteries.

Stan is asked to defend a college student accused of killing her baby. It's a pretty hopeless case, as she has no memory of what happened. Stan knows he shouldn't even be taking the case since he's only been in practice for a year and has never handled a murder trial. But the client's father insists, claiming "God" has sent him to Stan.

Stan and Rebekah's good friends, Don and Pam Blaylock, are in deep trouble. An imprudent investment in a Golden Dragon franchise and their son's arrest for DWI triggers an avalanche of misfortune culminating in the murder of Luther Bell, the smooth talking promoter responsible for their impending demise. While Stan conducts a preemptive investigation to prove his clients are innocent, he is inundated with lawsuits and claims from their growing list of creditors and must deal with the inevitable marital strife that threatens

Stan is called home from a Colorado vacation when his client is cornered in a barn by the FBI, allegedly having killed an IRS agent. It looks like a hopeless case as a witness claims to have seen Dusty Thomas standing over the body, shotgun in hand. Dusty, however, insists he is innocent and since he has been a hard-luck client, Stan agrees to defend him. But Stan is soon distracted by the disappearance of his friend and best client, Tex Weller, and must go to Ecuador to try to find him.

As the stock market is taking a nosedive and the nations banking system falls into crisis, Stan is asked by the CIA to help an operative unravel an IRS garnishment and ends up caught in a firefight between the IRS and the CIA. His day grows more complicated still as he receives the surprising news that he has been named executor over the estate of Lottie West, who has died in suspicious circumstances and who--Stan soon discovers--has been hiding priceless art treasures stolen during World War II.

While defending a teenager accused of murder, Stan discovers a secret government project invoving aliens from another planet. In order to keep him from compromising the Tarizon Repopulation project the CIA attempts to recruit him into the program.

After being discharged from the Marine Corps, Stan Turner ends up in Dallas where he intends to finish law school at SMU. In the spring of 1976 he is recruited by the Repubican Party to be county chairman and finds himself helping President Gerald Ford in his campaign against Jimmy Carter. The campaign is marred, however, by an untimely FBI investigation into the financial dealings of a local party contributor, Brad Thorton, and the apparent murder-suicide of Stan's best friend....

Stan's bankruptcy client, Maureen Thompson, is accused of her husband's murder. Her alleged motive is the proceeds of a large insurance policy on her husband's life that would cure her financial woes. Stan assigns the case to his partner, Paula Waters, who at first is excited about getting a new high-profile murder case but her excitement is soon dampened when she learns this isn't the first of Maureen Thompson's husbands to be hacked to death with an ice pick!