Pacific Book Review
Whoever said “truth is stranger than fiction” knew what they were talking about. Trails of a Dead Lawyer’s Wife: A True Story, is a living testament to this wisdom.
The book begins with a psychic’s strange prophecy. The narrator of this harrowing memoir learns that her husband Scott will be losing his law practice, will be facing stern judgment for ‘moral turpitude,’ and will end up face down on a table with a ‘hole in his spine.’ Unfortunately, all of this comes to pass.
In a series of brilliantly and cagily written episodes, we follow the breathtaking downward spiral of Maggie’s and Scott’s lives. Maggie’s mother is diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. Maggie’s apartment goes down in flames. Scott takes up with a vampiric slut named Brandi Scruggs, who somehow manages to get Scott to will her half his money–the day before he dies. Prior to his death, Scott squanders much of his money on Brandi and on alcohol and hard drugs. At least two other people in Brandi’s orbit die under mysterious circumstances. Truth is stranger than fiction–right! Everything is wrong in this nightmarish confluence of disaster. But everything is right with this book.