Street Judge »

Judge Greg Mathis is a national television judge. His inspirational life story of a street youth who rose from jail to judge has provided hope, entertainment, and legal insight to millions who watch his award-winning television show each day. Judge Mathis began his career working in politics and social justice. Prior to his judgeship, he worked for Detroit's city council and its mayor. He is an advocate for equal justice and currently serves as an official with three civil rights organizations. The judge helps troubled youth in and out of the courtroom. He has assisted thousands of families and youth for decades through his nonprofit agency. During his travels where he lectures on equal justice, he has received hundreds of awards and has been honored by numerous governors, mayors, city councils, and state and federal legislatures.

In this fast-paced, sexually charged thriller, a newly appointed judge is caught up in a gritty case involving a brutally murdered woman as well as a blackmail scheme involving an overzealous femme fatale determined to sleep her way to the top of Detroit's society page.

Detroit was once considered the murder capital of the nation, and as fresh-tothe-bench Judge Mathis discovers, it may be living up to its name. In one of the city's most horrific crimes ever, a young single parent has been discovered decapitated in an alleyway, with her head located several blocks away. The police are stumped until the arrest of a drug dealer promises to reveal vital information about the case. The only problem? The drug dealer won't talk to anyone but Judge Mathis.

The dealer demands privileges and assurances of safety from Mathis, who refuses to bend his moral code and give in to the conditions, setting the investigation back to square one. But Mathis isn't about to give up and finds himself unable to stop thinking about the case. So he sets out on the streets, using his savvy and connections to uncover the motives and means that led to the woman's death. Crossing paths with people from his past who have decided to benefit from criminal activity, Mathis stands up for the innocents who cannot defend themselves. From establishing a drug rehabilitation center to helping the youth through a mentoring program, Mathis is much more than a judge, for he once walked on the wrong side of the law as well.

Drugs and murder are not the only issues that Judge Mathis must contend with. An overambitious assistant district attorney has decided to use her feminine wiles to sleep her way to the top with several of the most powerful men in Detroit. Using sex as a weapon and blackmail as the ultimate threat, she has caught them all up in a web of deception and Judge Mathis must help his close friends to salvage their lives before her game becomes deadly.

Publishers Weekly

Mathis, a juvenile delinquent turned judge and courtroom reality show host in Detroit, Mich., delivers his unfortunate first novel, a trite thriller featuring a crusading Mathis as the protagonist. The action begins as Mathis uncovers corruption in the seductive form of ambitious assistant D.A. Carolyn Otto, who has begun an affair with Mathis's good friend, Gram Olson, in an attempt to swindle Gram's wife's money. Carolyn (whom Mathis refers to as "black widow" ad nauseam) reaches the apex of evil as she blackmails Olson and tries to bribe Mathis himself. Simultaneously, Mathis is searching for the killer of Sheila Morgan, a single mother who was decapitated. Unfortunately, the narrative is disjointed and comically hokey, and the prose is less than lackluster.
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