Tuxedo Park, written by famed defense attorney Tom Kenniff, is a relatively short political thriller with a modern take on a corrupted and politicized justice system.
The title of the book is named for the old money enclave in the Hudson Valley of New York, where privilege, class, and family names still remain relevant.
Kenniff has made headlines for the successful defense of the former Marine New York City Subway Hero, Daniel Penny (against all odds with a Manhattan jury pool presumed to be unsympathetic), along with several other prominent cases like the stand-your-ground defense of the senior citizen who used lethal force against home invasion, and the recent DoorDash homicide case in upstate New York.
His debut novel is already getting plenty of media attention (Fox News, Newsmax, WABC Radio, Hudson News, etc.) and a critical rave review from Peabody Award-winning journalist Carl Nelson.
The story revolves around an investigative procedure over an abduction gone wrong that winds up leading to a cover-up that reaches the highest center of political power in America and illustrates the political tensions between the judicial and executive branches.
Democrat candidate and the presumed next President of the United States, Kent Dawson, the scion of a prominent New York patrician dynasty in Tuxedo Park, impregnates his next-door neighbor, Susan Sterling, in a brief affair that leads to a tragic ending for both.
Sterling disappears not too far from her family home in Tuxedo Park, leading to an initial investigation that reveals a kidnapping attempt that goes terribly wrong and takes down a massive cover-up and the power of political patronage that impedes the prosecution of a bloody crime.
The novel's protagonists, Assistant Orange County D.A. Don Haggerty and his friend, John Palmer, a Manhattan prosecutor on loan to assist the prosecution of a local extortion racket in the quiet upstate New York county, are both drawn into the mysterious disappearance of Sterling.
Palmer, a native of Tuxedo Park, is reluctantly drawn back to a town that he avoided for years, but becomes zealously driven to bring justice to Sterling, his former neighbor with whom he had an intense relationship more than 20 years prior.
The two prosecutors face the destruction of their careers, physical intimidation, betrayal from superiors, and the reluctance of a Justice Department to prosecute an incoming President-elect.
As a former prosecutor, U.S. Army JAG officer, and Republican nominee for Manhattan D.A., Kenniff has gained the experience and insight into the legal and criminal justice system, with knowledge that makes him a go-to guy when these subjects are being analyzed.
"Call one theme you might want to think of is what happens when life imitates art when Tuxedo Park was first conceived, there was no Nancy Guthrie case, there no Eric Swalwell, or even the idea of indicting a President of the United States, which was strictly theoretical, yet all these things have entered the national Spotlight since Kenniff completed his first draft of the soon to be released book," wrote Douglas Dechert, Kenniff's book agent, to PJ Media.
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