ABOUT US:
If you enjoy legal thrillers, classic film noir, crime fiction, true crime, and mysteries that make you think about justice and the darker side of human nature, you've come to the right place.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Tee Ferguson and I love a good thriller or mystery story. My favorite thing to do on a cold day is sit on the couch with my wife and my dog and watch a good thriller/mystery movie on television or read a similar novel. In addition to reviewing these stories, I also enjoy writing legal thrillers of my own.
I love movies in general but have always been a fan of the noir films, which tend to have a dark story and unusual yet interesting characters that are involved in a murder mystery for some reason. The Maltese Falcon is a prime example of a classic noir thriller. Humphrey Bogart stars as Sam Spade, a detective drawn into a murder mystery populated by some of the most sinister and unforgettable characters in classic film noir.
While I enjoy noir films, I also love the mysteries that are also comedies. Only Murders in the Building is a great example. Each season is a fun mystery for the whole family and Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez never disappoint.
One thing you should know about me is that I work as a criminal attorney and I am very partial to the Legal Thrillers; John Grisham is to legal thrillers as Stephen King is to Horror. I tend to read a lot of his work and movies based on his work. I have also come to realize that there is a sub-genre to legal thrillers called Legal Noir – which has unusual and dark characters trying to manipulate the legal system for their own needs. My prime example of that is “Better Call Saul” on AMC. Saul is an unusual attorney that essentially is running scams on the criminal justice system to benefit himself and his clients. Saul is balanced by his brother Chuck who believes that the law is sacred and should be treated with the utmost respect. The constant clash between these two creates one of the series’ central conflicts and raises the question if the manipulation of the justice system for one’s benefit unfairly hurts society as a whole?
So why does Verdict Noir exist? Because I have always been fascinated by the criminal justice system. That’s why I became a criminal lawyer. I've always believed that the best crime stories are about more than solving a mystery. They ask difficult questions about justice, morality, punishment, redemption, and human nature. Verdict Noir was created to explore those questions through books, films, television, and true crime.
So, I thought I would draft a blog every week to share a thriller or mystery with you that I enjoyed. I will try to abide by the following rules:
1. Give a general idea of what the story and characters are about without spoiling the ending.
2. Always keep it positive. Some books or movies are better than others. My goal is not to belittle or put down another author and their work, but to focus on the good aspects of the story.
3. If a story is not worth recommending, I just won’t review it.
4. I will try to find where the movie, book or story is available to be seen, read or purchased.
5. If I can link it to a website where it can be bought, I will. Full disclosure… Yes, I am an affiliate marketer and will be getting a percentage of the purchase if you buy something from the linked website.
Let’s have some fun! I can’t wait to share some awesome stories with you.
TF’s Notes: I once had a professor that said, “I dropped out of law school twice because the professors were trying to make me change the way I look at the world around me.” I didn’t realize it until after my first year of law school that he was right; once you study the law, you are trained to analyze everything from a legal perspective and that’s what I always do when watching or reading film noir, legal stories, mysteries and true crime. Sometimes I point out where the story got the legal system right and/or wrong (which drives my wife nuts.) Therefore, my TF’s Notes after each blog is something that I always add. They tend to be a commentary about the story that I hope makes you see something different in the story as I do.
TF
