A Very Fine Line

About the Book

On one of the happiest occasions of his life, DAN BRENNAN, a high school football coach, has a few beers with friends to celebrate. On his way home, after consuming a few beers, his way home, he hits a man jogging alongside a dark and remote country road who he doesn't see because of being blinded by the lights of an oncoming tractor-trailer.

When a Breathalyzer test reveals that he is ever so slightly above the legal limit, he is charged with DUI Manslaughter after the man dies as a result of the injuries sustained in the collision.

DAN is suspended as a coach, pending the investigation and trial, and his job as a teacher is in jeopardy, if convicted. His wife files for divorce. The family of the deceased man sues him. His life literally hangs in the balance.

Dan decides to risk everything he has worked for his whole life in order to vindicate himself by way of a trial before a jury of six strangers. In the end, a fine line separates winning from losing, a guilty verdict from a verdict of not guilty a very fine line.

"This book takes a reader from arrest to verdict in language non-lawyers can easily understand. I heartily endorse it."

Robert E. Jagger, former Public Defender in and for Pinellas and Pasco Counties, Florida, 1961-1996.

" as realistic a portrayal of the human tragedy involved in a DUI Manslaughter case as I have read."

Patrick D. Doherty, Criminal Defense Lawyer, Clearwater, Florida.

"This story reads as true to the real thing as anything I have ever read. This is how it really is."

Eugene F. Zenobi, Criminal Defense Lawyer, Miami, Florida

About the Author

Since 1976, Pierce Kelley has been a trial attorney in both the criminal and civil arenas. He has tried well over a hundred cases before juries and has successfully appealed cases to the Supreme Court of the State of Florida and the State of West Virginia. He currently works with the Three Rivers Legal Services Program, which provides legal services to the poor and the elderly in a seventeen county area in North Florida.

Mr. Kelley has taught at various colleges and universities for over twenty years as an adjunct professor. During most of the last ten years, he taught civil litigation to paralegal students at St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, Florida. A Very Fine Line is his second novel to be published.