Death Row Diaries: A Story of Murder and Mayhem with an Internet Twist

Chris (Toper) Thorne has done it all. He's been an entrepreneur, the primary developer of the ground-breaking Cash for Trash board game. He's been the recipient of the Dale Carnegie award for public speaking. He's been a service-club president, a minor hockey referee and a safety rep in an automotive-parts plant.

(PRWEB) May 10, 2008 -- He's is a self-employed realtor -- and now, also works the front line in an Ontario maximum-security jail. And, on top of all of that, he is a published author.

Thorne's first novel, Death Row Diaries: Criminal Justice, is a marvelously inventive work. It starts with murder and mayhem, as crime-based novels so often do, but the twist here is that not only has the crime been committed, but the central figure has already been found guilty -- and is now awaiting society's ultimate punishment on Death Row.

In Death Row Diaries: Criminal Justice, the inmate tells his story -- how he killed, where he killed and why he killed. He's re-living his crimes, in graphic detail and in graphic display, to an Internet audience -- and he takes that audience with him right into the death chamber. It is this twist -- and the criminal revelations themselves -- that give Death Row Diaries: Criminal Justice much of its shocking, unsettling impact.

This first installment in the series tells the story of Jack Stevenson, who wins $229 million in a lottery. He intends to use the money to kill five people, one for every member of his family who has suffered at the hands of others.

After killing his fourth victim, he is caught, jailed, and sentenced to death in the electric chair. The final question remains: Who was to be Stevenson's fifth victim? It all unfolds on his final day on Death Row -- his confession, his final jailhouse meal and, ultimately, his death in the electric chair.

Death Row Diaries: Criminal Justice packs a huge emotional wallop, one of those novels that grabs you right from Page 1 and keeps you reading well into the night. It's a remarkable first effort for the highly creative Thorne -- and perhaps a sign of more exceptional work still to come.

The novel is making its way into the hands of a couple of Hollywood film directors; it may only be a matter of time before we can watch Jack Stevenson's execution for ourselves on the big screen.

Death Row Diaries: Criminal Justice
by Toper Thorne
ISBN: 978098914108
$21.95

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