ABOUT THE EDGE OF MALICE

Marie seems to have it all: a devoted husband, two wonderful children, and a professional career.

But all of that changes when she drives her car into the darkened parking lot of a fast food restaurant.

After she lowers her car window to place an order at the drive-thru, a man suddenly appears and places a gun at her temple.

What follows is every woman’s worst nightmare.

The Edge of Malice is a true story about struggle, determination, and a quest for justice.

This gripping narrative takes the reader first to the scene of the crime and later into the swirling currents of the courtroom where no outcome is ever certain.

But the story does not conclude when the legal battle is over.

The reader follows Marie as she struggles to resolve the unrelenting anger that the legal system has been unable to extinguish.

In the end, Marie’s journey to find inner peace is as improbable as it is transformative.

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ABOUT THE EDGE OF INNOCENCE

Lorain, Ohio December 20, 1963

Florence Bennet is found dead in a bathtub of scalding water. Her husband, Casper, claims that he found her like that, but his burned hands tell a different story.

Or so the police and almost the entire population of Lorain believe.

And as the Bennetts’ marriage with its secrets of alcohol, affairs and abuse is laid bare in the courtroom, it looks like the only possible verdict is murder.

Bennett’s sensational trial more than fifty years ago pitted an aggressive, mercurial county prosecutor against a defense team that included the author’s father. In the tradition of John Grisham and Scott Turow, The Edge of Innocence recreates the tension and excitement of this true courtroom battle, and also reveals the uncertain edge that often divides guilt from innocence.

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The Edge of Innocence is the first book by David Miraldi, a civil trial attorney practicing in northeastern Ohio for almost forty years. Miraldi was eleven years old when this case dominated local headlines. Long after his father’s death, the author found the Bennett file buried in the bottom of his mother’s closet. From the moment that he began reading those papers, the long-forgotten drama seemed to cast a spell on him. As he uncovered more and more of the facts, he realized that the story he had known as a child was much different from the one that unfolded before him.