A Loss of Faith by Alfred L. Frith

About the book

The nation's largest law firm is sued for fraud when a powerful partner is accused of providing prostitutes to government officials to secure approval of a huge, but environmentally sensitive, development project in Florida. A rising Hispanic reporter is sexually assaulted by her boss after he slips a roofie in her drink at a South Beach nightclub where she is researching a story. A thirty-eight-year-old man dies after his HMO fails to pay for the drugs that might have saved his life. These are just three of the problems facing Robert Starkey in the legal thriller, A Loss of Faith.

Starkey is a brilliant, but sexually confused, trial lawyer in the Miami offices of Jones & Jones, the nation's largest law firm. He does not love his third wife, is sexually attracted to his addicted but sultry second wife, and less than enthusiastic about bailing out his own law firm, particularly John Dempsey, a bigoted former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Starkey despises Dempsey, the lobbyist for virtually every vested interested in Florida. He also knows that Dempsey probably did provide prostitutes to secure governmental approval of the project. The developer alleges that it paid over $5 million dollars for legal services and not for hookers and that but for the illegal activities of Dempsey the project would have been approved. Starkey's only hope is to show that the project would have not been permitted because it was environmentally unsound.

Cynthia Estevez enters Starkey's life after she was drugged and raped by her supervisor at the Miami Tribune. The problem is that she can't remember the assault. Starkey advises her to complain to her employer and, when she does, she is transferred and later fired. After she passes a lie detector test, Starkey reluctantly takes the case, a real long shot.

A Loss of Faith is the journey of Robert Starkey through the winding path of the legal system as each case runs its course. In between, he encounters murder, sexual infidelity, pompous attorneys, and corrupt judges. In the end, he wins two of the cases but for all the wrong reasons. When he finds out the truth, he is devastated -- having completely lost faith in a legal system permeated by greed, corruption and incompetence.

In the dramatic conclusion to the book, Starkey races, out of control, down the Florida Keys to his boat in Key West. There he debates whether to kill himself or implicate his own firm. Read A Loss of Faith to discover the surprising conclusion.

About the author

Although fiction, the courtroom scenes in A Loss of Faith are strikingly realistic. They should be. For the last eighteen years, Frith has worked as a trial lawyer in Florida where he maintained a successful law practice.

Trained as an attorney, writing is his first love. However, the pressures of raising a family and establishing a law practice postponed his entry into the world of fiction until recently. During his first year of full-time writing, Frith completed two novels. He is also the author of Abraham's Children, an international thriller, which is scheduled for publication in 2002 under a pseudonym.

From modest roots, Al put himself through college at Samford University where he graduated with honors, and law school at Florida State University, where he won a national moot court competition. In between, he earned a fellowship to George Washington University for a Master's Degree in Public Administration and a practical education in politics while working for a Member of Congress in Washington, D.C. as a Legislative Assistant, which forever blurred his view of politicians.

Frith lives in Florida with his wife. An avid sports fan, Frith enjoys playing golf bowling and tennis. In the past, he has coached youth baseball and basketball teams and attempted to play both sports well beyond his prime. He is currently completing his third and fourth novels.