Campbell, Gordon 1942-

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Campbell, Gordon 1942-

PERSONAL:

Born September 13, 1942; married Tena Campbell (U.S. District judge). Education: Brigham Young University, B.S., 1964; Arizona State University, J.D. (with honors), 1972.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Salt Lake City, UT. Office—Parsons Behle & Latimer, Salt Lake City Headquarters, 201 South Main St., Ste. 1800, Salt Lake City, UT 84111. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Lawyer and writer. Parsons Behle & Latimer, Salt Lake City, UT, lawyer in the firm's litigation department. Former assistant U.S. attorney for Utah.

MEMBER:

American Board of Trial Advocates, American College of Trial Lawyers (fellow).

WRITINGS:

Missing Witness (novel), William Morrow (New York, NY), 2007.

Editor in chief of the Arizona State University Law Journal, c. 1970s.

SIDELIGHTS:

A former assistant United States attorney for Utah who went into private practice with a law firm where he specializes in litigation and appeals, Gordon Campbell is also the author of the novel Missing Witness. Campbell's debut in fiction received widespread praise from reviewers. "Campbell is a masterful and spellbinding wordsmith whose ability does not begin and end at creating and telling a superb story," wrote Joe Hartlaub in a review for Book reporter.com. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Missing Witness "an engaging courtroom drama along the Turow/Grisham line."

The story is told by Doug McKenzie, a recent lawschool graduate who is working with small firm in Phoenix, his hometown, in 1973. "His narration gives insight into law firm dynamics and trial strategy that adds dimension to the whodunit plot and provides depth to the various characters," wrote Lesley Dunlap for the Mystery Reader. In a review for the Florida Bar Journal, Claire Hamner Matturro noted: "Campbell's debut novel is a classic courtroom drama reminiscent of Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent. But it is also a young lawyer's coming-of-age tale, with the inevitable exchange of innocence for experience."

Doug passes up an opportunity to work at a larger and more prestigious firm in San Francisco so he can learn from his role model, the experienced trial lawyer Dan Morgan. Before long, Doug finds himself on a murder case helping Dan defend Rita Eddington, who, along with her twelve-year-old daughter, Miranda, is the only witness to the murder of her estranged husband, Travis. Rita, however, is quickly arrested as she admits taking a gun with her when she and her daughter went to see Travis. Further implicating her in the murder is the testimony of a hired hand on Travis's property who was watching from the field and came running after he heard a shot only to find Rita and her daughter coming outside the front door and Travis lying dead inside in a pool of blood. Unfortunately, the trauma of witnessing her father's murder has left Miranda catatonic and unable to testify, leaving Rita with no one else to attest to her innocence of the charge of murder.

Doug helps Dan on the case as he devises an audacious strategy to defend Rita, namely that it was actually Miranda who committed the murder. Along the way, Doug realizes that Phoenix holds many mysteries and that one of them could impact both the case and the careers of Dan and himself. Furthermore, Dan is connected to the dead man's family, and it is Rita's father-in-law who actually hires Dan to defend his daughter-in-law. "Unless you're in the legal field, it's possible … [the book] will start out slow for you," noted Peg Brantley in a review for Suspense Novelist. However, Brantley went on to note: "But don't give up. Your persistence will be rewarded."

As the story progresses, Dan tries every ploy he has learned in his long and illustrious career. "Rita's trial proceeds with many nail-biting moments," wrote Kirstin Merrihew for Mostly Fiction. "Doug, who has never tried a case before, gets a whale of an education, not only regarding courtroom strategy and tactics but also concerning the power jockeying amongst the partners in the firm." When an initial verdict is handed down by the jurors, it ends up leading to more questions. Dan begins to sense that his client is lying but can't prove it. As a result, he begins to ponder giving up the case, but Doug is persistent in following leads to find out what really happened. In the process, the relationship between Doug and his mentor begins to suffer.

"The many finely detailed courtroom scenes crackle with tension," wrote Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist. Writing for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oline H. Cogdill noted that "Campbell breaks new ground in his debut, producing a legal thriller that explores the alchemy of the law and truth."