CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE

From investigative reporter Schiller (American Tragedy, not reviewed, etc.), an unsatisfying journey through a wrongful-death suit that turned into allegations of murder and then abruptly disappeared.

A Ford Explorer drives off the road and hits a telephone pole on a snowy winter night. Estimated speed at impact was 10-15 mph, but the driver, a pregnant, 37-year-old mother of one, is dead behind the wheel by the time EMS personnel arrive. Her husband is unconscious next to her, and their infant daughter is unharmed in the backseat. The husband, Eric Thomas, is a dentist in the town, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, and it is not long before he brings a wrongful-death suit against Ford, alleging that a faulty airbag killed his wife. Ford unleashes their formidable legal team to investigate and, lo, doubts about the good doctor start spawning like tadpoles. The most dreadful is that he may have strangled his wife: The nature of the bruises on her neck are suggestive, as is the affair he’s having at the time of the accident with the woman he will soon afterward marry, not to mention a timely increase in life insurance. Schiller starts the story as if he’s switching the ignition on a racing car, but then the engine turns over and over and never catches—lots of up-front energy that gradually wanes and disappears. Right when Ford’s lawyer is about to let the suspicion-of-murder assertion out of the bag—not even half way through this account—Schiller admits that the lawyer “knew he’d better be right before he mounted such a defense, but in truth, he had no idea what had happened that night between the Thomases.” Talk about the air being let out of the bag. After that point, the story is a lot of legal maneuvering, posturing, and delaying. Finally, everyone just goes home.

A federal lawsuit is in the wings. Schiller should have waited.