Shirley is trapped in the King County Court System where she feels invisible, except on certain days when she has head-on confrontations with certain beligerent youth, pious judges and crude crooks who challenge her sense of integrity and ethics. It all boils to the surface when she comes face to face with an escaped criminal who is out to destroy her. She can defend herself only in the way she has been taught, hoping it will be good enough.

After feeling the muzzle of a gun in her back, Shirley spun around, hammered the felon's head with a bone crunching karate chop that slammed him face down on the floor of the parking garage. Feeling like Tarzan - or maybe Jane, she planted her foot on his back, pounded her chest, flexed her muscles and yelled, "Aheeeaaahh! It's Me! Shirley." She suddenly realizes that she has her foot on the back of her courtroom nemesis..

This 86,000 word novel involves the life of a fifty-something African-American woman who, following a short-lived and devastating, interracial marriage, finds work in the King County system, ultimately as Court Stenographer. She encounters judges like Horatio Morgan and also defense attorneys who challenge her ethical and moral values. A convicted felon escapes custody, then terrorizes and threatens the life of everyone related to his conviction, including the court stenographer.

Having previously worked with aggressive youth in the King County Juvenile Service Center, Shirley had decided to take karate lessons in order to legitimately defend herself. This ultimately proves to be the very thing that she uses to foil an attempted robbery and also serves to save her life in a later encounter with the escaped felon.

While on vacation in a tropical paradise and away from the often hostile environment of her workplace, she meets a man who desires for her to spend all her mañanas with him. It was like a dream come true, but it would mean moving to another country and learning another language. In the end, it could be well worth it - in more ways than one.

Cost: 13.95 From Amazon.com in Paperback