About the Books
The Art of Argument (co-author with Linda Cantoni)
Career prosecutors and authors Gary Fidel and Linda Cantoni offer a treat for non-lawyers who want to be equipped with an essential tool to guide them in delivering and expressing persuasive arguments. The Art of Argument is a sure help for those who need to construct better reasoning, even if they are non-lawyers. It shows step-by-step guidelines and easy-to-follow rules of organizing thoughts, ideas, and arguments, to win over your opponents.
For more information about this book, visit http://www.thinklikealawyer.com/titles.htm
Think Like A Lawyer: The Art of Argument for Law Students
(co-author with Linda Cantoni)
If you’re an aspiring lawyer --- striving to succeed and survive law school, and polishing your legal arguments, then Think Like A Lawyer: The Art of Argument for Law Students is definitely for you. Career prosecutors-authors Gary Fidel and Linda Cantoni help you create solid legal arguments that will take you up to the ladder of success. Learn how to master this craft with a straightforward and systematic approach, as presented by the authors. Surely, this is an indispensable handbook for law students.
For more information about this book, visit http://www.thinklikealawyer.com/
The Blue Rider: A NOVEL
A baby boomer, I grew up in Florida in the 1950’s-1960’s. My knowledge of WWII was formed by Hollywood movies. Although I studied the Holocaust in college, I had never actually met a survivor until, after graduating from law school, I met Lea Weingel in 1976. With great reluctance, she agreed, after many requests on my part, to tell me the story of her life during the war.
Lea had grown up in the small village of Talsi, Latvia, and was living in Latvia when the Germans invaded that country. Barely out of her teens, she fled with just the clothes on her back, leaving behind her parents, who were murdered by the Nazis. Alone, without money or help, she somehow survived the war years in Stalinist Russia. Her journey took her across the vast lands of Soviet Russia to Tashkent and Samarkand, All the while, she had to find a way to overcome her grief over the loss of her parents, her world. Even more admirable was Lea’s decision to escape from Stalinist Russia, risking imprisonment in the gulag or death to get out.
Hers was a story of courage that was so moving that I knew I had to use it as the basis for a novel. I was astonished by her riveting account. For me, it was an incredible adventure. For her, however, it was a return to the most painful years of her life.
Lea passed away before I could complete the novel. But even now, her voice lives on in my memory, calling me back to a small village in Latvia, and a beautiful cloudless day in June, 1941, when the sound of artillery fire ended the life she had always known, and sent her on her remarkable journey.
I hope I have done her story justice.
Gary Fidel
Daytona Massacre
A courtroom drama set in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1997 that centers on a capital murder trial.
On a June morning, three black women are found brutally slain in a house on a quiet street on the mainland side of Daytona Beach. Rick Sands, Chief of the elite Homicide Trials Bureau, is asked by the State Attorney to handle the case himself.
Michelle Charles, the sole survivor of the massacre, is an eighteen-year-old black woman who must find the strength to overcome her fear and despair to obtain justice for her slain friends.
Craig Washington, a twenty-six year old black man determined to escape justice, finds that he would rather be put to death than face the truth about his own childhood.
In seeking justice for the slain victims, Assistant State's Attorney Rick Sands, realizes that victory must be redefined as something more than just obtaining the ultimate verdict he seeks.