Presumed Guilty
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
March 14th, 2012 was a typical day for Emma Simpson, a successful portfolio manager running the Manhattan office of a big-time hedge fund. Emma followed her usual routine, interacting with coworkers and clients before returning to her quiet family home in the Hudson Valley, where she lives with her husband and two children.
But more than a year later, Emma's world is forever changed-all because of a short email she dashed off on her way home that day to simply support routine company practices. That email becomes the focal point of a criminal investigation by ambitious federal prosecutors.
Alexandra Shapiro's Presumed Guilty follows Emma's journey as the target of a federal white-collar criminal prosecution. She must now fight to prove her innocence, protect her family, and preserve her reputation.
Will she prevail, or will the justice system fail her?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Shapiro makes her debut with a thought-provoking legal thriller. In 2012, Emma Simpson is juggling her responsibilities as a wife and mother with her high-pressure job on Wall Street as the manager of the New York office of a hedge fund. That work-life balance becomes more difficult after she is targeted by the ambitious and publicity-hungry U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Peter Weisman. Weisman's investigative team believes, based on little evidence, that Simpson profited from insider trading to the tune of millions of dollars and orchestrated her staff's destruction of relevant records after learning of a subpoena. The feds pursue a multiyear inquiry, ultimately charging her with obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Despite no proof that Simpson had the requisite corrupt intent to sustain the charges, the prosecutors push ahead, setting up a dramatic trial. Shapiro endows all her characters with depth in the service of an all too plausible plot, and her courtroom scenes perfectly capture the thrust-and-parry exchanges of opposing counsel. Scott Turow fans will hope for more from Shapiro. (Self-published)
