Rating: 
Summary: This fascinating story will turn readers into detectives
Review: In an America fascinated, intrigued and frustrated by its legal system, Lawrence Schiller is one of the countries most knowledgeable and sage observers. He has written about O.J. Simpson, Jon Benet Ramsey and master spy Robert Hannsen. He frequently appears on television talk shows discussing the law and its intricate maneuvers. He is a man who understands and appreciates the operation of the American legal system. In CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE: A Death in the Night, Schiller presents a view of the legal system from a perspective distinctively different from most readers have experienced. The legal system presented in CAPE MAY COURTHOUSE lacks the notoriety and glamour of previous cases that Schiller has examined. The case studied is neither a major crime nor a front-page saga. The absence of these elements, however, does not detract from a fascinating and thought provoking story that will leave readers with many unanswered questions when they reach the end of the book.CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE refers not to the locale of the litigation that forms the basis for Schiller's narrative. Rather, it is the New Jersey community where Eric and Tracy Thomas reside at the time of Tracy's tragic and soon to be suspicious death. The Thomas family had moved to the community after Eric purchased a medical practice and began his career as a dentist. To the residents of the community, the young doctor and his wife, pregnant with the couple's second child, gave the appearance of the perfect young married family. Tragedy would soon enter their lives when Tracy died after the family's Ford Explorer goes off the road in what appears initially to be a minor accident. Early investigation of the death of Tracy Thomas implied that her death resulted from the improper inflation of the air bag in the Ford Explorer. The inquiry by the medical examiner determined that improper operation of the bag resulted in Tracy's suffocation. As any observer of the American legal system would expect, this information resulted in a civil lawsuit for wrongful death filed against Ford Motor Company and other defendants. Up to this point in the narrative, the Thomas story does not differ from hundreds of thousands of civil lawsuits filed and ultimately resolved in thousands of law offices and courthouses across America. Civil litigation commences with a process referred to as discovery. Parties to lawsuits are entitled to investigate the claims of their opponents and are obligated to exchange information concerning the litigation. In many complex cases the discovery process can take several years that are often brutal and financially taxing. This process can often determine the outcome of the litigation. During the discovery phase of the Thomas litigation, evidence came to light suggesting that Tracy Thomas' death was anything but an unfortunate accident. Schiller recounts the detection of this critical information in a neutral and detached manner. Using the legal arguments, strategy and news media accounts as an underpinning, he involves the reader in an attempt to answer questions surrounding the death that occurred on that winter evening in 1997. CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE lacks the definitive denouement that most readers have grown to expect in actual litigation. There is no jury verdict in either a civil or criminal case to bring closure to the fateful events that led to the death of Tracy Thomas. At the end of this book many questions remain unanswered. As a result, the reader may find himself disappointed. Yet, more often than not, that is the actual outcome of litigation. Many cases end leaving both sides with concerns and unanswered questions. Lawrence Schiller has reported the facts of this case as an observer rather than as an advocate. While he may be uncertain as to what transpired in the village of Cape May Court House, he is more than willing to let the reader come to his own conclusion based upon the information he furnishes. Those individuals who enjoy a real life mystery, unencumbered by emotional baggage, will enjoy reading this book and attempting to solve the unanswered questions in the same manner as those parties involved in the death of Tracy Thomas. --- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
Rating: 
Summary: Accident or Murder?
Review: In reading this book, you immediately get captured by the author's ability to put you at the scene in Cape May. You find the unconscious father sitting next to the dead driver/wife/mother while the sick young child sits alone in the back seat. They were taking her to the hospital (or was she really sick?) This cold, late winter's night, you get the sense that something is wrong with the picture. Why was the mother driving when she was in the late stages of her pregnancy? Wouldn't she be in the back seat comforting the sick child while the reputable dentist/father drove? The lawsuit brought against Ford Motors by the grieving husband, remarried, is based on an airbag caused death. Is this lawsuit about a dead wife? ... a mother and her unborn child? ... or is it an attempt by a murderer to make money from a large corporation? As the hero of the story, Bill Conroy (Ford's top attorney), starts to discover the possibility of murder, a settlement is out of the question. You will get the true meaning of legal discovery. This is a book that you can't stop reading. As lawyers on both sides maneuver and attempt to gain the upper hand, you are sitting at the table and in the courtroom, listening to the arguments while also understanding the thoughts and the strategies of the legal teams. This book is riveting!
Rating:
Summary: straight journalism
Review: Lawrence Schiller was not allowed interviews with two key figures in writing
this book; the dentist, Eric Thomas, and his second
wife, Stephanie, declined to let him talk with them. He relied to a great
extent on the lawyers involved, and on the parents and
sister of Eric's first wife, Tracy. Tracy Thomas, who was 6 months pregnant, died in a crash of a Ford Explorer
she was driving en route to the hospital with
her sick baby and husband, Eric. The crash did not seems severe enough to
cause a fatality. Eventually her husband Eric
brought suit against the Ford Motor Company, claiming that the Explorer air
bag caused Tracy's death, and that of her
unborn child. There is much court dialogue in Schiller's book, and readers (unlike myself)
who enjoy that may find it engrossing. Probably
because Eric and Stephanie denied the author access, neither of them comes
to vivid life, and the narrative suffers as a result. The case remains unresolved, with Tracy's parents now bringing a "wrongful
death" suit against Eric, as some evidence
suggests Tracy may have been strangled rather than died as a result of the
crash. Schiller's book is a written in workmanlike, journalistic style that didn't
fully engage me. This is a story that could rivet a
reader's attention, given a livelier approach.
Rating:
Summary: "A Bad Truth is Better Than a Good Lie"
Review: Six months pregnant, Tracy Thomas died in an accident in her Ford Explorer on February 9, 1997, when she was suffocated by an over-zealous air-bag. Or was this a products liability accident at all? Tracy's dentist husband, Eric, had Double Indemnity accidental life insurance on her ($400,000 worth.) He had a hot and heavy relationship with his former high school sweetheart, whom he married as soon as her divorce became final after Tracy's "accident." Then Eric got really greedy and sued Ford Motor Corporation, alleging THEY killed Tracy. Ford was not amused and did not "roll over" this time. Lawrence Schiller, another member of the OJ "True Crime" writers association, has written a fascinating account of the goings-on in around the town of Cape May Court House, New Jersey. Unfortunately, Mr. Schiller eschews photographs a la Joseph Wanbaugh. C'mon guys! Let us SEE the people you are talking about. The "Grandaddy" of the Genre, Truman Capote, added to his bleak tale of the Kansas Clutter family by including pictures of the players, and you should too! The end of this book is really no end. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the rest of this book?
Review: The facts of the story are quite interesting, but there is not enough background given on the victim and her husband or enough character development of the primary characters AT ALL and no pictures of them. It's hard to find a mental picture of them too. There is just not enough here to make a book..
It seems like an magazine article blown up into a book.
It is frustrating to read. I'd like to know more background on the characters, but it is not there. I would have liked to hear from more people who actually knew the victim, the husband, and the second wife and less from the lawyers.
Rating:
Summary: He sure phoned this one in
Review: The two stars I awarded are strictly for the inherently interesting case which Schiller chose as his subject. However, his plodding style wrings the life out of the story. The key individuals never come alive--barely any physical descriptions, no photos, no enriching details. It was difficult to keep all the attorneys straight, because none was described in any fashion, and no personality traits were portrayed. I've read better written grocery lists.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible book
Review: This book read like it was written by a not-very-talented 12 year old. It was boring, repetitive and could've been summed up in 10 pages. What a complete waste of money. Complete waste.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing to this Ann Rule fan
Review: This book started out quite promisingly in, it seemed, the Ann Rule mode. However, I soon noticed that whereas Ms. Rule provides plenty of local color, historical anecdotes and family background, this book seems to be just a chronological compilation of court transcripts, newspaper articles, and anything else that could be obtained by anyone under the Freedom of Information Act. With its endlessly dull verbatim quotes from this or that legal professional, not to mention the truly tedious footnotes, it reminded me more of a sophomore term paper than investigative reportage. I, like others, found myself frustrated with the lack of a real ending. And speaking of frustration, these are real people--why did I have to go to the Internet to find a photo of them? Any true crime book worth its price should have several pages of photos, and Mr. Schiller couldn't even provide one of the victim.
Rating:
Summary: Cape May Courthouse: A Death in the Night
Review: This is a story about greed and stupidity. A New Jersey
dentist files a wrongful death suit against Ford Motor Company for himself and his minor daughter alleging that a defective, overly aggresive airbag caused his wife's death in a minor, low impact collision with a utility pole. He is a passenger in the front seat of the vehicle at the time. The dentist is able to find a New Jersey attorney who advances $426,000 of his law firm's monies for costs and expert witness fees in expectation
of recovering a substantial contingent fee, from a settlement or jury verdict, before he learns that the dentist has lied to him about certain critical facts which severely jeopardizes his case. There is a bumbling police and medical examiner's investigation into the wife's death. The wife's family is so suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the accident that they contact the local prosecutor's office which declines to prosecute. Then, in the course of the litigation, Ford spends
hundreds of thousands of dollars during discovery to hire numerous of the world's greatest experts and investigates almost every aspect of the dentist's life because it is also suspicious of the circumstances of the accident, so much so that Ford's attorneys also contact the local prosecutor's office, which again declines to prosecute. The dentist's attorney hires numerous expert to contradict Ford's experts. The million dollar question is did the dentist's wife die of strangulation or of an airbag injury? This book essentially offers a chronology of the legal proceedings, intersparsed with newspaper stories about the case,
and offers a glimpse of the strategy and tactics of the Ford attorneys during the case. But there is very little insight into the thinking of the dentist's attorney who is hoodwinked into
investing $426,000 and 7,500 hours of uncompensated time in a client who has lied to him about substantial facts and yet is able to state incredibily that: "I am not bitter but I am terribly disappointed." You will enjoy this book if you are interested in reading about how the zealousness of a personal injury plaintiff's attorney, in an effort to collect a substantial contingent fee,
can cause him to be blinded, duped and taken advantage of by an untruthful client.
Rating:
Summary: Cape May Court House
Review: This is an extremely interesting book and leaves the reader on a cliff hanger. Since the actual case has not been solved, it gives the reader the opportunity to be the lawyer/detective to reach our own conclusion. However we do not learn as much about Tracy Thomas as we would like but we do learn about her family. Since Schiller does not supply pictures in the book, our image of Tracy, Eric and their family is open to interpretation making it feel as if it were a work of fiction. This is an excellent book and an easy read.
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