A first novel that may be headed for best-seller, Keep and Bear Arms is a legal thriller brimming with courtroom drama, written for thinking people who value real-world intrigue over body count.

Carl Hardman, an aging lawyer, tries to save “Wally Aldin” (Walid al-Din) a Middle-Easterner, from the death penalty for the fire-bomb murder of a rural judge.  Hardman’s pre-teen daughter, Susan, lives with her mother, Dani, who is a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law.  Taking the case requires him to stay in Champaign, hoping to spend more time with Susan.

Dani is an expert on a legal aspect of the case and Hardman needs her help.  Nevertheless, he is drawn to Laura, the young wife of the defendant.  Ethics argue with hormones; he courts disaster.

The national media flood into Moraine, a small Central Illinois town near Champaign. Homeland Security and the FBI wage a turf war with the local sheriff.  A Christian Identity true believer plots against Hardman and his client.

Aldin is an enigma.  Far from likeable, he has often abused the legal system and refuses to cooperate in his defense, electing to rely on the presumption of innocence.  His true colors are a mystery that plagues Hardman.  Is he a deep cover Al-Qaeda terrorist? 

The courtroom scenes are taut and legally accurate.  The judge cuts corners to avenge her colleague.  Within the FBI, integrity struggles with expediency.  A brooding premonition of execution stalks the case.

The author, Robert Auler, has spent a lifetime defending unpopular defendants.  He opens the doors to the backroom mysteries of the legal system.  The book is fast-paced and gripping.  At the same time it presents an intelligent and accurate collision of the deepest passions of the post-9/11 age. 

A gripping, first-class read.