The Cockfight Book Review – Quick Read, Eloquent Indictment of The Judicial System
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Tuesday, 25 November 2025 12:37
- Written by Janet Walker
The Cockfight, from author Frank Abrams, presents a captivating story of injustice in our contemporary judicial system, as seen through the eyes of a group of homeless men, each with a unique, and yet all to real story.
The book begins with a vicious murder, a nameless man is attempting to rape another man, when a group of men, Preach, an older man who preaches the gospel, Teach, a former teacher of the year, Ebenezer, all decide what should be done with the body. The Julie Tuttle sex offender colony was the drop off point for the formerly incarcerated sex offenders, as reunification into society was doubtful.
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After they decide the best place for the body was the bay and let it be. They all decided that the homeless encampment under the General Douglas MacArthur Causeway was better, and so our caravan picks up their few possessions and relocates.
Told across 273 pages, The Cockfight is divided in to 52 chapters, which move quick. They are set up like short bursts, pulling readers deeper into the stories of men, with once vibrant lives, now lost for a myriad of reason. We begin to understand, as we travel the hard road with these men, that life can be unmercifully cruel, especially to the undeserving.
We meet Teach, once awarded Teacher of the Year in Miami Dade schools, who by a cruel twist of fate, was the only adult supervisor on an out of state field trip, and in an attempt to be both stern adult and compassionate caretaker, he ended up being accused of rape, and through a breakdown in the judicial system, he is sentenced to prison, labeled a sex offender, and forced to live in the sex offender outdoor camp upon his release.
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Once they form a small extended family unit, the men for both emotional support and protection, are always together. One perk of life under the MacArthur Causeway, every Friday night, they held cockfights, and these roosters, are more than trained to fight, the have razors attached to their legs. The cockfights bring in big money.
Soon the story begins to unpack Teach's past, and we realize it is more than simply a wayward girl, deciding she would play the inescapable card. She was angry, and he was not taking her cigarettes from her. By the end of his attempt, two local nobodies had restrained him, and in an instant, the teacher of the year was a headline splashed across Miami. Even the DNA analysis came back positive. He was threatened with life in prison or a plead guilty and be out in ten.
He took the deal, admitted guilt to a crime that never happened, and lost his life. Not simply the ten years of prison, but his career, his wife, children, and home. And now, here he is homeless living under the General Douglas MacArthur Bridge.
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Life in Miami, can sometimes make a man forget his troubles, as paradise, warm gentle breezes, brilliant blue oceans, and sunsets painted by God himself, and even here, in this homeless encampment, living ocean front has its perks.
Being the vulnerable, the men are dependent on the kindness of the system, and strangers, finding soup kitchen for meals, panhandling for change, and meeting social workers who are trained to someone see past the cover to understand the person and their story.
Once Teach meets Debbie, the social worker, his life begins to change, as he recounts his story. And as he continues his fight to clear his name, his extended family remain steadfast in his corner.
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The Cockfight presents a harsh indictment of the judicial system and presents a shocking overloaded court system, a mill, rubber stamping the innocence labeling them guilty and shipping them off to prisons, before the victim has had a chance to wrap their head around the situation and think clearly.
Unfortunately, this is the standard. Experts are easily procured, and more importantly, which we see through the pages of The Cockfight, many of those who make up the chain, in which the evidence travels for confirmation, overworked, underpaid, and living paycheck to paycheck. The naïve among us want to believe they will do the right thing, but the harsh reality is that they do what they are told, they find conclusions based on their directives.
"There are many victims of our unjust and unforgiving 'justice' system. Once they are caught in its web, it is difficult if not impossible to extricate oneself," Abrams said. "Cockfighting is a system that treats animals in the same brutal way that the justice system treats people. It makes them mean and angry toward each other and generates money at the same time."
The Cockfight is a compelling and shocking read. It is the Number 1 ranked legal thriller and Number 1 ranked General Fiction book for the year, on IngramSpark. A must read.
The Cockfight is available on Amazon.
Frank Abrams, the author of The Cockfight, is a licensed attorney in both North Carolina and Florida. He has practiced federal and state criminal law during his entire thirty-seven year career. The story he told is a combination of fiction and truth.
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Title: The Cockfight.
Author: Frank Abrams.
Language: English.
Release Date: July 31, 2025.
Format: Softcover.
Images: Used with Permission.
Length: 245 pages.
ISBN: 979-8-9910735-0-9.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
