Cover Talk: DARK MONEY by Larry D. Thompson

Title: DARK MONEY           

Author: Larry D. Thompson

Publisher: Story Merchant Books

Pages: 420

Genre: Legal Thriller

DARK MONEY is a thriller, a mystery and an expose’ of the corruption of money in politics.

Jackson Bryant, the millionaire plaintiff lawyer who turned to pro bono work in Dead Peasants, is caught up in the collision of money and politics when he receives a call from his old army buddy, Walt Frazier. Walt needs his assistance in evaluating security for Texas Governor Rob Lardner at a Halloween costume fundraiser thrown by one of the nation’s richest Republican billionaires at his mansion in Fort Worth.

Miriam Van Zandt is the best marksman among The Alamo Defenders, an anti-government militia group in West Texas. She attends the fund raiser dressed as a cat burglar---wounds the governor and murders the host’s brother, another Republican billionaire. She is shot in the leg but manages to escape.

Jack is appointed special prosecutor and must call on the Texas DPS SWAT team to track Van Zandt and attack the Alamo Defenders’ compound in a lonely part of West Texas. Van Zandt’s father, founder of the Defenders, is killed in the attack and Miriam is left in a coma. The authorities declare victory and close the case---but Jack knows better. The person behind the Halloween massacre has yet to be caught. When Walt and the protective detail are sued by the fund raiser host and the widow of the dead man, Jack follows the dark money of political contributions from the Cayman Islands to Washington to Eastern Europe, New York and New Orleans to track the real killer and absolve his friend and the Protective Detail of responsibility for the massacre.

For More Information

• Dark Money is available at Amazon.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

 Larry D. Thompson Talks About His Cover DARK MONEY

The cover for DARK MONEY was designed by Buffalo Creative Group.

I submitted a page and a half synopsis of the book and in a matter of weeks received two proposed cover. I chose one of them. The cover features a costume ball mask with blood dripping from it. Certainly, it is eye-catching, the kind of cover that would cause a reader to want to pick up the book. The mask idea comes from the opening scene. It’s a political fund raiser shortly before Halloween where everyone is to come in costume. It is a DARK MONEY fundraiser and the symbolism of the mask is obvious. With certain of these political organizations, the government does not require the donors to disclose their names. All of the funds are veiled by a curtain, and no one can look behind it to see where the funds come from. As to the blood, there is an assassin at the fundraiser who kills one person and critically wounds the governor of Texas. Jack Bryant, the protagonist, must then lead the manhunt to find the killer and the person who paid for the attack. So the bloody costume mask works very well to draw the reader into the story.

Larry D. Thompson was first a trial lawyer. He tried more than 300 cases throughout Texas, winning in excess of 95% of them. When his youngest son graduated from college, he decided to write his first

novel. Since his mother was an English teacher and his brother, Thomas Thompson, had been a best-selling author, it seemed the natural thing to do.

Larry writes about what he knows best…lawyers, courtrooms and trials. The legal thriller is his genre. DARK MONEY is his fifth story and the second in the Jack Bryant series.

Larry and his wife, Vicki, call Houston home and spend their summers on a mountain top in Vail, Colorado. He has two daughters, two sons and four grandchildren.

For More Information

• Visit Larry Thompson’s website.
• Connect with Larry on Facebook and Twitter.