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Jeffrey Stephens - BOOK - Illusion of Trust · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Heyo five. You're a fifty five CAROSD talk station. Bryan
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  Speaker 1: Thomas switching everyone a very happy MLKA Junior Day. Welcoming
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  Speaker 1: to the fifty five Carsey Morning Show. Jeffrey Stevens. Jeffrey
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  Speaker 1: Stevens an author a probably you've probably read his books.
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  Speaker 1: Amazon best selling, Pencraft Award winning author of the Jordan
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  Speaker 1: Sander thrillers. Several of those targets are deception, targets of opportunity, targets,
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  Speaker 1: revenge and rogue, mission the Anthony Walker Murder mystery, Crimes
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  Speaker 1: of Passion, the Pencraft First Place Award winning novel Fools
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  Speaker 1: Aaron and Nicholas Reagan thrillers plural, the Handler and its
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  Speaker 1: sequel enemies among us. It lives in New York. He's
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  Speaker 1: successful attorney, been practicing for decades and of course a
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  Speaker 1: truly successful author. Welcome to the fifty five Cars Morning Show,
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  Speaker 1: Sir Jeffrey Stevens, to talk about your new book, Illusions
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  Speaker 1: of Trust. It's a pleasure to have you on the
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  Speaker 1: particle Happy to Illusions of trut Let me first ask you.
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  Speaker 1: This book involves a gentleman by the name of Russell Palmer,
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  Speaker 1: who's described as an idealistic attorney, and I guess the
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  Speaker 1: book kicks off with a client coming into his office.
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  Speaker 1: It sort of suggested like it's a film noir novel
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  Speaker 1: or something, you know, the detective with the shit with
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  Speaker 1: the mysterious client it comes in. But then there's all
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  Speaker 1: this Yeah, all this intrigue. I'm a huge film noir fan,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, all this intrigue and all these characters
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  Speaker 1: that you you know, be developed their characters in the
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  Speaker 1: book has typically done. But I was kind of curious,
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  Speaker 1: is this going to be another series? Are we looking
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  Speaker 1: forward to a Russell Palmer series books like you have
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  Speaker 1: with the other ones Jordan Sander and others.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it is, it's the short answer. Yes, I've already
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  Speaker 2: got one in the can and I'm working on another one,
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  Speaker 2: and so yes, we're going to roll out some more
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  Speaker 2: Russell Palmer and Robbie White.
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  Speaker 1: Fantastic. All right. Now, since you're a been practicing law
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  Speaker 1: for decades, I'm wondering if this was inspired by well,
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  Speaker 1: something that happened actually in your practice, or is this
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  Speaker 1: whole cloth a creation?
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  Speaker 2: No, no, completely completely. You know, after years of writing
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  Speaker 2: these espionage thrillers in a couple of other things. I
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  Speaker 2: felt that I should look back at my legal career
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  Speaker 2: and what I could do about tapping into that for
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  Speaker 2: something worthwhile. And years ago I handled the celebrity divorce
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  Speaker 2: and I thought, boy, that would be a nice centerpiece
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  Speaker 2: for a novel if we twisted it around a bit,
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  Speaker 2: And that's what we've done. So it was a lot
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  Speaker 2: of fun to write. A lot of the characters are
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  Speaker 2: based on people that I knew back in my New
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  Speaker 2: York City days, and the New York City itself is
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  Speaker 2: a character in the book. If you will, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's so many things. Just like Cincinnati, there are certain
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  Speaker 2: cities that have unique aspects to it. In New York
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  Speaker 2: it's the restaurants and bars and so forth, and so
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  Speaker 2: they all play a part with the characters in the book.
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  Speaker 1: Fair enough, what you're you're the title of the book,
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  Speaker 1: Illusions of Trust? What are you suggesting about that? Are
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  Speaker 1: we getting something wrong about trust? Or is this just yes, okay, okay, that's.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly what That's exactly what I think. As my pr
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  Speaker 2: lady at Ascott Media said, she came up with the
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  Speaker 2: tagline that trust is the most dangerous illusion of all
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  Speaker 2: and it's true and part of part of the noir
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  Speaker 2: aspect of the book is that justice is not for
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  Speaker 2: the rich. The rich by themselves justice and so where
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  Speaker 2: mister and Missus America deal with the court system. And
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  Speaker 2: I was listening to your previous guest, who was fantastic,
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  Speaker 2: by the way, I just have to say that it
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  Speaker 2: was riveting, and I grew with everything he said. By
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  Speaker 2: the way, but you know, the rich, they get fancy lawyers,
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  Speaker 2: and they you know, they own judges, and they hate
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  Speaker 2: to be so cynical, but it's the truth. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we see people getting away with things all
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  Speaker 2: the time. I mean, in the current political climate, I
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  Speaker 2: constantly hear about Pam BONDI saying this person and that person.
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  Speaker 2: And I won't name famous names like the Clintons for example,
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  Speaker 2: on these terrible things. But we're the indictments, we're the trials,
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  Speaker 2: you know. But if it were you or me, we'd
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  Speaker 2: be in trouble. So that's part of what the story
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  Speaker 2: is about.
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  Speaker 1: And Attorney Jeffrey Stevens, since you write about an attorney
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  Speaker 1: in this book, we're referring to here today illusions of trust.
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  Speaker 1: I have to point out something that I've pointed out
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  Speaker 1: a lot of times. I practice litigation for sixteen years.
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  Speaker 1: I'm still licensed, but I've been on the radio show
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  Speaker 1: here for this is my twentieth year in radio. So
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't litigate myself out of a paper bag right now.
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  Speaker 1: But it is expensive. And going back to your idea
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  Speaker 1: that gee can a January sixth protester going through the
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  Speaker 1: Department the justice system afford to defend him or herself
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  Speaker 1: versus let's say the Clintons who just put a political
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  Speaker 1: action committee sign up and say I need legal defense
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  Speaker 1: money and everything, and his brother sends him money. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: lawyers are expensive. You're in New York. You're talking four
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  Speaker 1: bills plus an hour, one thousand plus dollars an hour
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  Speaker 1: for an attorney in New York.
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  Speaker 2: It's insane, big boys do now. I live in Connecticut now,
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  Speaker 2: but I was originally a New York guy. And so yes,
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  Speaker 2: you're absolutely right. And a great case in point is
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  Speaker 2: apparently this young man I say, apparently murdered his parents,
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  Speaker 2: the Rhiners, and he had one of the top defensive
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  Speaker 2: lawyers in defense and he quit. And why did he quit?
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  Speaker 2: Because this kid, he found out did not have access
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  Speaker 2: to his parents' money, and he couldn't pay him. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: that's what it's about.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Well, I guess we can call that karma coming
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  Speaker 1: home to roost.
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  Speaker 2: In so far as that is concerned, I would say
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  Speaker 2: so I was not a Rob Reiner fan politically, but
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  Speaker 2: I could say that it was a tragedy and it's
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  Speaker 2: just an awful thing. And yes, you're right, karma is
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  Speaker 2: you know what?
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  Speaker 1: So it is indeed, And you have the host of
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  Speaker 1: characters in the book we're talking about today that he
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  Speaker 1: wrote Illusions of Trust, of course going to be a bestseller,
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  Speaker 1: influential congressman, reclusive eras you have pharmaceutical companies, and I
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  Speaker 1: mean it's like everybody that we come across day in
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  Speaker 1: and day out, and articles we read about that it
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  Speaker 1: seems to be involved in corruption or this unequal treatment
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  Speaker 1: under the law. They're all in this book.
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  Speaker 2: You see right through me, mister Thomas. It's exactly right.
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  Speaker 2: I come by the way. I come from the thesis
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  Speaker 2: that if you're going to write any kind of thriller
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  Speaker 2: or legal thriller and an espionage thriller, it's critical that the
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  Speaker 2: villains be interesting. You have to have three dimensional villains,
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  Speaker 2: otherwise you have two dimensional cartoon characters, they're not fun.
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  Speaker 2: So there is no shortage of villains in this book,
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  Speaker 2: and in fact, readers have said one of them is
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  Speaker 2: probably the most fascinating character in the story, despite everything
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  Speaker 2: I did to make Russell Palmer and Robbie White interesting. So, yes,
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  Speaker 2: there are a lot of people, and some of them
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  Speaker 2: turn out to be bad. Some of them turn out
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  Speaker 2: to be better than you thought they would be. So
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  Speaker 2: there are many, many twists right up to the end
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  Speaker 2: of the story, and I hope that readers enjoy that
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  Speaker 2: and get that sense, as you say, of a noir thriller,
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  Speaker 2: while they're reading about things that are truly are topical
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  Speaker 2: in our time.
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  Speaker 1: Well, use this attorney, that's the principal character in the book,
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  Speaker 1: Russell Palmer, you described as an idealistic attorney, you know,
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  Speaker 1: principled individual. Do you develop these in these conflicts he
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  Speaker 1: has with the trust issues, the illusions of trust, you
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  Speaker 1: develop some sort of moral and ethical breakdown? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: is this easy engage in this moral ethical process that
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  Speaker 1: we should all go through and dealing with somewhat nefarious types.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, very much so. And particularly because his mentor is
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  Speaker 2: Robbie White, who is a retired NYPD detective who's years
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  Speaker 2: older than he and he's got all the cynicism that
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  Speaker 2: you get from from walking the beats in New York,
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  Speaker 2: and so he sort of he sort of keeps Russell
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  Speaker 2: on the straight and narrow, because sometimes Russell goes with
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  Speaker 2: his instincts in terms of wanting to help people, wanting
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  Speaker 2: to do good, but sometimes you have to be careful
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  Speaker 2: because the people for whom you're doing good might not
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  Speaker 2: be good themselves. And so Robbie's cynicism and Russell's idealism
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  Speaker 2: is constantly a balance act that must that has to
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  Speaker 2: come and play. And so that was that was truly
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  Speaker 2: a lot of fun for me, because truly, Robbie White
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  Speaker 2: was based on a former New York City Police detective
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  Speaker 2: that I knew well. He was an older gentleman and
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  Speaker 2: and he helped me when I began my career. So
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  Speaker 2: it was a lot of fun for me to pay
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  Speaker 2: ominy to him and what he did well.
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  Speaker 1: I guess I have to wonder, is this a sort
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  Speaker 1: of maybe a fiction cautionary tale for us out here
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  Speaker 1: dealing with nefarious types in the real world. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I'm wondering why so many people are willing to trust
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  Speaker 1: systems or individuals that either currently or later betray them.
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  Speaker 1: I guess, are we just that easily? Do? Do we
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  Speaker 1: lack a critical thinking sufficiently? And did you write this
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  Speaker 1: book to kind of get us to wake the hell
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  Speaker 1: up about those kinds of things going on?
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  Speaker 2: That's that's that's my tagline when I post on Instagram,
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  Speaker 2: wake up America. I mean, all you have to do
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  Speaker 2: is look at Minnesota, and people are easily duped. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: And it's really sad. And you know, I grew up
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  Speaker 2: in an era where you know, we learned to respect
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  Speaker 2: the police officers and law enforcement officers and to trust
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  Speaker 2: our politicians, and you know, we grew up with certain idealism,
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  Speaker 2: you know, whether it was a conservative Democrat like John
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  Speaker 2: Kennedy or whether it was my favorite Ronald Reagan. And
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  Speaker 2: now look at what we've got to choose from. It's
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  Speaker 2: almost it's almost unbelievable. And I see some of these
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  Speaker 2: representatives again, I don't want to say names, but I
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  Speaker 2: see some of these representatives on TV. There's one guy
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  Speaker 2: who wants to impeach everybody. Every time he's interviewed, he's
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  Speaker 2: got somebody else to impeach. And I look at him.
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  Speaker 2: I think, who voted for this man?
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  Speaker 1: Right?
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  Speaker 2: I mean truly well voted for him?
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  Speaker 1: And going back to me this said, I've been struggling
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  Speaker 1: with this one, DEMI did the American people really reject
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  Speaker 1: what ICE is doing in getting rid of like child
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  Speaker 1: molesters and rapists and hardcore murderer felons. I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: find that so hard to swallow. But there you go.
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  Speaker 1: You look at the mayor in Minneapolis, you look at
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  Speaker 1: the governor Tim Walls. They are absolutely screaming about Ice
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  Speaker 1: and encouraging the citizens to rebel against them while they're
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  Speaker 1: enforcing federal law that remains on the books. I wonder
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  Speaker 1: what kind of world I woke in.
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  Speaker 2: And by the way, not everything you just said is accurate,
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  Speaker 2: of course, but not just that they're enforcing the law,
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  Speaker 2: but they are actually, in a day to day manner
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  Speaker 2: trying to make the streets safer because of all these
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  Speaker 2: people who got let into the country. And we've all
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  Speaker 2: heard the chorus about murderers, rapists, kidnappers, drug drugs dealers, whatever.
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  Speaker 2: Why would they not want those people remove from the street.
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  Speaker 2: Why are they defending them and going up against law enforcement?
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  Speaker 2: It just makes no logical sense. Yeah, some of them
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  Speaker 2: are paid protesters, but not all of them. And then
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  Speaker 2: you see them interviewed on the street and they're asked,
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  Speaker 2: what are you protesting against? And they don't have an answer.
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  Speaker 2: They literally can't answer, I'm here to abolish ice. What
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  Speaker 2: do you understand what that means? Not really, but it
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  Speaker 2: was a good enough slogan for me. I mean, that's
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  Speaker 2: what they're saying.
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  Speaker 1: True. And then amazing go back to Clinton and Obama
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  Speaker 1: and H. W. Bush and Trump during his first term
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  Speaker 1: and Biden, they kicked out a lot of illegal immigrants
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  Speaker 1: in our country, millions and millions of them, and no
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  Speaker 1: one raised a single voice against it when Obama was
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  Speaker 1: doing it. But you know, evil.
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  Speaker 2: Orange man, right, he had them in cages. They criticized Trump.
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  Speaker 2: Obama had them in cages. He he deported three point
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  Speaker 2: four million people, and no one said peep. I know,
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  Speaker 2: But that's that's what's so, that's what's so mind twisting
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  Speaker 2: for me personally, is that this young woman who got
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  Speaker 2: killed on the train, the woman from the Ukraine, who
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  Speaker 2: or Lake and Riley, where are the marchers and the
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  Speaker 2: protesters for them? But but this woman who tries to
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  Speaker 2: run over an ice officer, she gets shot in the process,
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  Speaker 2: and suddenly, you know, we've got another George Floyd situation.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they picked their heroes very oddly.
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  Speaker 1: As my opinion, they do, and I can't let that
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  Speaker 1: go without pointing out Ashley Babbitt got gunned down. She
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  Speaker 1: didn't even present eminent apprehension and eminent a reasonable expectation
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  Speaker 1: of a bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or death. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: they just shot her and they all praised and got
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  Speaker 1: away with it, and they praised the officer. Huh, what's
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  Speaker 1: worse running a car into an officer or trying to
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  Speaker 1: squeeze through a tiny broken window while unarmed?
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  Speaker 2: Hmmm, yeah, yeah, you're so right, Jeffery, right. I just
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  Speaker 2: don't know. You know, here's the real question for me,
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  Speaker 2: and truly, I mean this sincerely to whoever is listening
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  Speaker 2: to us. What is it going to take for America
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  Speaker 2: to wake up? Do we need to find someone who
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  Speaker 2: is a uniter? Like? Listen, I love most of what
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump does, and I know Donald Trump and personally
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  Speaker 2: I know he says stupid things. Okay, I got that,
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  Speaker 2: But what he's doing is fantastic. But he's not a uniter. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: we need somebody. I don't know who. It will be
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  Speaker 2: another Reagan maybe, but someone to bring us together. What
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  Speaker 2: is it going to take for the left to say,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you know what this may we are all
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  Speaker 2: Americans and this makes sense. Do we need another nine
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  Speaker 2: to eleven? Do we need Durant to attack us? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: what event or what person will come forward to bring
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  Speaker 2: us back together? Because to me, this is really this
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  Speaker 2: is a mess. I've never seen this in my lifetime,
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  Speaker 2: even during the Vietnam War, because during the Vietnam War
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  Speaker 2: it was a discreet issue. It was one single issue,
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  Speaker 2: which was you were against the war or not. And
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  Speaker 2: I can understand both sides, I really could. Even though
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I was personally against the war at the time, I
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: admit that, but the idea was it was one. It
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: was one issue. Now we seem to be divided about
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  Speaker 2: everything Trump does. These amazing If Trump found the cure
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  Speaker 2: for cancer, they would criticize them for putting doctors out
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  Speaker 2: of business.
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  Speaker 1: They would incredible.
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  Speaker 2: It's incredible.
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  Speaker 1: Well, uh, since you mentioned Vietnam, don't forget we had
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  Speaker 1: the Simbionese Liberation Army and the Red Army faction and
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  Speaker 1: the bottom minehoff Gang and all these communists bombers left
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  Speaker 1: scenes forget about that, we lived in much more dangerous times.
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  Speaker 1: Pivoting over from January sixth, they blew up the Senate bathroom.
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  Speaker 1: That seems to be a step above anyway, Jeffrey Stevens.
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  Speaker 1: We were all over the place. The book Illusions of Trust,
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  Speaker 1: which is on my blog page fifty five Carsee dot
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  Speaker 1: com fantastic. It will be another best seller. For my
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  Speaker 1: guest today, Jeffrey Stevens, it's been a real pleasure talking
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  Speaker 1: with you and doing a little stream of consciousness in
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  Speaker 1: there consciousness there.
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  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it, and I enjoyed it. And my
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  Speaker 2: wish for everybody in twenty twenty six is that we
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  Speaker 2: engage in random acts of kindness, do something good for
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  Speaker 2: somebody at cast nothing, and it'll make you feel better
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  Speaker 2: and make the world a better place.
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  Speaker 1: Amen, well, stated Jeffrey Stevens. We'll get your book. It's
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  Speaker 1: on my blog page fifty five Carosee dot coms. Take
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  Speaker 1: care of my friend. We'll be talking against.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 1: All the better book in the queue eight nineteen. Now
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  Speaker 1: that you have kr C the talk station, don't go away.
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  Speaker 1: I'd be right back w k r C since in
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  Speaker 1: that