The rules of golf, like the rules of evidence, are a standard of conduct. The foremost of golf’s rules is to “play it as it lies.” Improved Lies, puts the reader in the gallery for a tournament of cheating and deception. On the golf course, in the board room, and in the bedroom the characters seek advantage by improving their lies. This story, in the context of a country club murder trial, performs a post mortem where integrity becomes the victim of “improved lies.”

The book opens with second generation businessman, Ted Armbruster, cradling the bloodied body of his young beautiful wife, Amanda, at the foot of the stairs in their fairway manse. She has been beaten to death with a PGA noncompliant wedge. Old school detective, Ray Bliss, is waving a signed confession when Ted’s lawyer arrives. Awakened by Ted’s frantic phone call at 2 a.m. the lawyer, Kenneth Edwards, told Ted to keep his mouth shut and invoked the Fifth to Bliss.

Edward’s outraged protest is blunted by Bliss’s smug comment, “Congratulations, counselor. You’ve just set the land speed record for hiring and firing a shyster. Mr. Armbruster has hired M. Stanton Brown. Mr. Brown and I agreed it would be best if your ex-client cooperated.” Off the case, Edwards tries to ignore the headlines trumpeting “Country Clubber Confesses;” “Jealous Husband Tees Off;” “Murder for Money.” But he can’t get the meeting with Ted in the lock-up out of his head. Ted, speckled with his wife’s fresh blood, trembling with shock and on the precipice of despair, swore he didn’t kill her.

Silk stocking lawyer, M. Stanton Brown, has proved competent only at extracting a huge retainer. When Ted’s mother begs Edwards to return as Ted’s lawyer with the trial looming, the lure of the impossible case proves irresistible.

Tina Botham, known to the defense bar as “Ms. Tight Bottom,” is a rising star in the prosecutor’s office. As she preps for her first murder trial, she is supremely confident. In opening statement she promises the jury that Ted’s bloody fingerprints on the murder weapon and confession at the scene will leave no room for reasonable doubt. She hammers on the defendant increasing his wife’s term life policy limits to the amount needed to save the family business as the motive for murder.

But, Edward’s pre-trial digging reveals many others with a motive for murder. Amanda, portrayed in the media as a charitable Angel of Mercy, has a darker side. Abused as a child, she has sexual needs which are anything but angelic. Ted’s prostate surgery has left him unable to satisfy her. Her affairs among Lake Pointe’s country club set have left a trail of angry, jilted lovers. On the night of her death she is dancing in the arms of Gianfranco Firenze. Firenze, a scrap yard operator with a criminal history and suspected mob ties, makes it very apparent that any pain caused his wife by courtroom publicity will be multiplied to the lawyer causing it.

But even more tempting to the defense is a note Amanda wrote shortly before her death: “CATS going to the dogs. T.N.P.C.” Amanda had been appointed to the audit committee of the Dressler Foundation to find out what happened to five hundred thousand dollars of the charity’s money which apparently vaporized.

Edwards has built a reputation and an enemy list by representing the little guy against entrenched power. But, his egotistical and lone wolf manner leave him with more adversaries than allies. Suing his way through the country club locker room has his name on the club’s black ball list. Years back the love of his life dumped him after he helped her get elected judge. Now she presides over the trial of his career. Her pro-prosecution and women’s rights agenda coupled with old baggage from their failed relationship mean that most of the rulings go against the defense.

Edwards shares a solitary home life in a cottage on Lake Huron with Max, a Rhodesian Ridge back. An attempt to poison Max as a warning brings state trooper, Karen Alison to investigate. Although she is well-vaccinated against defense attorneys in general and Edwards in particular, she can’t resist Max’s charms. Edwards, after his failed relationship with Judge Alexandra, has contented himself with one night stands. Now images of Trooper Karen come unbeckoned even in the midst of trial.

The story is set in Lake Pointe, Michigan, a town of 50,000 with a picaresque history from the lumbering and shipbuilding era. The parallel story lines of a country club member-member golf tournament, courtroom battle, and high finance interweave a common theme. How do the competitors resolve the conflict between a desire to win and the ethical integrity the rules of the game require? Most choose to improve their lies.

The book draws on the author’s vocations as a stock broker, prosecutor, and trial lawyer, as well as his avocation as a devoted but relatively incompetent golfer. A murder mystery served in a sauce of court room drama garnished with sex, high finance, and liberal dollops of golf, it should appeal to the page turners’ appetite. It’s a summer beach read with the same message as the Rules of Evidence: No improved lies “to the end that the truth may be ascertained and proceedings justly determined.”