Sydney Bennett is one of the most despised women in the
world. After a lengthy trial the cocktail waitress is
found not guilty of killing her two-year-old daughter. No
one is more surprised at the verdict than Sydney's
attorney, Jack Swyteck.
On the night of Sydney's release from prison, hundreds of
angry demonstrators are waiting for her at the prison
entrance, but the defense team and the warden get the
prisoner out the back way unnoticed. Tragedy strikes when
a woman that could pass for Sydney's twin is attacked by
the protesters and she now lays in a coma from the injuries
she sustained.
No one, including Jack, knows where Sydney is. Jack had
delivered Sydney, via ambulance, to a private air strip
where she ran into the waiting arms of an unknown man.
A cable news show keeps the animosity of the citizens
boiling with their unfounded rumors that Sydney has made a
book-deal for seven-million dollars of "blood money".
BLOOD MONEY is Grippando and his alter-ego Jack Swyteck at
their most dynamic. This is one tautly paced thriller
with unforgettable three dimensional characters -- some at
their very best, and some at their vilest. The
relationship between Jack and his grandmother is fabulous,
as is the love and devotion between the attorney and his
FBI fiancée, Andie. The twists and turns this tale takes
keeps the reader swiftly turning the pages, racing to an
ending that is totally unexpected.
"A nation is obsessed with Sydney Bennett, a hot nightclub
waitress accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter for
cramping her party life. It's the most watched trial since
O.J. Simpson, and millions of "TV Jurors" have convicted
Jack's client in the arena of public opinion. The shocking
verdict--not guilty--creates an immediate uproar, from angry
phone calls to outright threats. Media-fed rumors of "blood
money" in the form of seven-figure book and movie deals put
Sydney and everyone around her at risk. On the night of
Sydney's release, the angry mob outside the jail demands its
own justice. A young woman ends up dead in the frenzy, her
only crime being that she bears a striking resemblance to
Sydney Bennett. The media blame Jack and his defense team,
but to Jack's surprise, the victim's parents reach out to
him. With Jack's help, they believe they can prove that
their daughter's death wasn't just a random mob tragedy.
Something bigger and more organized is at work, and what
happened outside the jail that night is a symptom of the
evil that infected the show-stopping trial and media-spun
phenomenon of Sydney Bennett"--