It’s modern day in the New South City of Charlotte, North Carolina, when an unlikely trio of retirees at the Independence Retirement Community team up to solve two mysteries related to the death of a 96-year-old resident. Why was his manuscript about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence missing when they found his body? And why did his handwritten will dated the day he died disinherit his beloved granddaughter (his only heir), and leave his $50 million fortune to Sue Ellen Parker, the most despised resident at the Indie?
At the urging of Chuck Yeager Alexander, an optimistic soul who loves historical conspiracies, and Harriet Keaton, a former businesswoman with an extreme dislike of Sue Ellen Parker, Craig Travail, a trial lawyer recently ousted from his law firm after 40 years, reluctantly goes to court to challenge the dead man’s will for the granddaughter. This decision sets in motion a series of dangerous events that could lead the threesome to discover the answer to a colonial mystery that has evaded historians for 250 years. That is, if they don’t die trying.
Attorney Thad Raker is a man who believes in Santa Claus. And for good reason. He’s won two trials for defendants who said they worked for Santa Claus and he saved Christmas both times. But when Raker is hired 11 years later to defend the toy company that made the most popular Christmas present in 50 years—the Reindeer Hoverboard—he becomes entangled in the greatest threat to Christmas yet. And he learns that the survival of Santa’s North Pole village is at risk. Standing in Raker’s way are a large class of angry plaintiffs, an unbelieving judge, the FBI, several North Pole conspirators and Hank Snow, Raker’s nemesis from his previous Christmas trials.Raker needs all the help he can get in this, his toughest case ever, but Snow is the guardian of many secrets and has his own plans for the future of Christmas.
Defendant Henry Edmonds, a homeless man who believes he works for Santa Claus, is on trial for stealing a flash drive which holds the key to Christmas but which is zipped tight in an evidence bag. Several people want Edmonds in jail, including a man who says he works for an international toy company. Witness by witness the facts come out but who is to be believed and are there any True Believers?
As the courtroom clock ticks down on Christmas Eve, it becomes clear that the fates of the defendant and Christmas are inextricably intertwined. A local newspaper reporter stirs things up by blogging about what he calls the “Trial of the Century” and tweets that the “Court’s Ruling Could Halt Christmas for Thousands.” Can an irascible judge looking toward retirement find it within himself to save Christmas?
With The Christmas Heist, A Courtroom Adventure, Landis Wade has written a Christmas fable for the 21st Century, one that reminds all readers of why they were (or are) True Believers.
In book 2 of the Christmas Courtroom Trilogy, attorney Thad Raker, having lost his wife, is struggling to believe again while raising a young daughter on his own. His life begins to change when he meets and takes the case of Twirly Masters, an eccentric client living in a house with a Christmas secret.
When the government seeks to take Twirly's property, Raker must battle conspiring adversaries, a cantankerous judge and his own personal doubts. If he loses the case, Christmas won’t come for hundreds of thousands of children. Can Raker save Christmas, and in the process, save himself?
Part mystery, part legal conundrum, this story pits the timeless magic of Christmas against two formidable adversaries - rampant technology and greed. As the fate of Santa and his legion of helpers hangs in the balance, the courtroom battle comes down to where it is always won or lost - the human heart.
