When The Rules Don't Apply

Written by Gerard Shirar

Narrated by Jim Frangione

While growing up in a Boston neighborhood, Timmy Flaherty and Donny Faye are as different as night and day. Timmy lives by the rules and Donny refuses to accept them. The boys go on to serve in Vietnam, Timmy earns a law degree and Donny stays in the military a decision that surprises everyone who knows him.

After Donny violates the army’s rules, he receives a dishonorable discharge and afterwards begins to work for Percy Dwyer, a notorious Boston crime boss. When Donny’s poor choices ultimately lead him to be charged with murder he turns to his boyhood friend Timmy to defend him. Timmy is initially reluctant to take on a murder case, but is cajoled by Donny. When evidence is discovered proving Donny’s guilt , Timmy finds himself trapped between the obligation to a boyhood friendship, the morality of defending a murder and his oath to represent a client with fidelity. What no one knows is that the case is about to take a surprising turn that changes everything. 

In this legal thriller, boyhood friends are drawn together again as adults after one of them allegedly commits murder and asks the other to defend him. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suzanne Shirar
• Release date: Feb 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798868754647

Gerard Shirar

Gerard Shirar is a Purdue University graduate, a US Army veteran, a former director of security of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a former attorney who practiced in Everett, Massachusetts. Now retired, he resides in an assisted living community amid pleasant surroundings and company. This is his sixth book.