Missing Witness
By Gordon Campbell

428 pages, ISBN: 978-0-06-133751-2, $24.95
Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2007

Practicing trial lawyer Gordon Campbell debuts as a murder mystery novelist with Missing Witness. The novel’s narrator is newly licensed lawyer Doug McKenzie who turns down a big California law firm’s offer to work instead at the same firm as famed criminal defense lawyer Dan Morgan in Arizona. When McKenzie’s chance comes at last to work with Morgan, McKenzie jumps at it, walking off a golf course in the middle of playing a championship final. This case is the perfect opportunity for McKenzie, one that may not come again. Morgan has been called to defend a woman accused of murdering the son of a wealthy rancher who once employed McKenzie’s father. McKenzie knows the victim, the accused wife and their daughter, along with the man who inexplicably hires the best criminal lawyer around to defend the woman charged with killing his son.  

The facts of the murder unfold, and McKenzie’s history with the family and witnesses stands him in good stead in gathering evidence and providing background. Only the dead victim, his wife and troubled young daughter were present at the time of the murder; the daughter lies in a catatonic state brought on by the violence she either viewed or perpetrated. The trial strategy in defending the victim’s wife is to proceed rapidly to trial before the daughter emerges from the coma, and, to pin the murder on the daughter.

The pleasure of victory for Morgan and McKenzie when their client is acquitted is soon marred when a very disgruntled, outmaneuvered and vindictive prosecuting attorney decides to prosecute the daughter for the crime when she emerges from her catatonia. Again, the wealthy rancher turns to Morgan and demands that he defend his granddaughter of the crime for which his daughter-in-law was acquitted.

The truth is elusive as the facts of the new case defending the daughter conflict with those learned in the defense of the mother. Morgan’s larger than life fame and legal abilities are matched with oversized human flaws, making the search for truth ever more difficult. Their new client’s mother, and the only other witness to the murder, cannot be found. McKenzie struggles to do right by their young client as Morgan spirals out of control. 

The attorney-coming-of-age subplot underlying the mystery plot will interest attorneys. Young McKenzie grapples with issues of guilt and innocence, the boundaries and many challenges of criminal defense, ethics, conflict within a law firm and the human frailties of his hero, Dan Morgan. The plot twists, as well as those of the subplot, are surprising and entertaining and the book will capture the interest of mystery buffs as well as attorneys. Missing Witness is a compelling page turner.  

Martha Rupp Carter, Tulsa, is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Journal Board of Editors.

Missing Witness
Published 79 OBJ 1820 (August 9, 2008)