The novel of a man who remains locked up for his role in the brutal 1988 murder of former Thiel College student Roger "Butch" Pratt has drawn comparisons to the works of best-selling author John Grisham.

Pratt's mother, Rose Pratt of Munhall, Pa., is not impressed.

"A Trial of Innocents," written by Michael A. Swiger under the pseudonym Michael Andrew, was published in late 2000 by PublishAmerica Inc. of Frederick, Md.

Swiger was convicted a dozen years ago in Ohio of involuntary manslaughter and kidnapping in Pratt's murder and sentenced to 21 to 53 years in prison.

Swiger, locked up at Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg, is up for parole in October, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.

"He's probably just trying to get some publicity," Ms. Pratt said.

Swiger's novel received favorable reviews from Amazon.com. In its review, the online bookstore said:

"A brutal crime leaves one woman clinging to death, her unborn child dead, and a peaceful Ohio Valley community crying for vengeance.

"The book races from the life-and-death decisions of the operating room to the tension-packed fireworks of a murder trial -- a unique mix of legal intrigue and page-turning suspense that catapulted John Grisham to the best-seller list."

One of the posted reader reviews, submitted by Frank J. Swiger of Wickliffe, Ohio, says, "It is hard to believe this is Andrew's first book. His words flow as if he had written a hundred novels. ... The message is brilliant!"

A Cleveland podiatrist named Frank Swiger pleaded guilty to felony charges for putting cocaine and marijuana in tin cans labeled as soup and leaving them for Mansfield (Ohio) prison guards to deliver to his brother Edward Swiger in 1996. Frank Swiger was the third of four brothers, sons of former Jefferson County (Ohio) Commissioner Ed Swiger Sr., to face criminal charges.

"I don't really care that he (Michael Swiger) wrote a book. Michael Swiger is my heartache," said Ms. Pratt. "I will do everything I can to keep him and the others (connected to the murder) in prison."

Swiger's older brother, Edward, is serving a life sentence in Ohio for the murder.

And Linda Karlen, formerly of Hempfield Township and Sharon, was sentenced to 7 to 15 years in connection to the murder for luring Pratt to an out-of-the-way field near Hudson, Ohio, where Pratt was beaten to death by Edward Swiger. Michael Swiger was not convicted of playing a violent role in the death.

Pratt's body was found more than a year after the slaying in a shallow grave on a farm near Jamestown, where Ms. Karlen once had lived.

Ms. Pratt said she plans to start another petition drive soon to keep all of those behind the death of her youngest son in prison. She said her signatures against their early releases have influenced parole hearings in the past.

The Swiger brothers also pleaded guilty to the May 1998 arson of a Greenville furniture store and face prison time in Pennsylvania if they are released from the Ohio state prison system. Edward Swiger and Pratt had been best friends at Thiel, but the Swiger brothers feared Pratt would implicate Edward in two burglaries of Thiel fraternities and both brothers in the arson.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Tuesday that Swiger's 268-page paperback is in the running for a Pulitzer Prize in the fiction category.

A Pulitzer spokesman in New York told The Herald Friday that prize winners and nominated finalists would not be announced until April 8 and that it did not name those being considered for the nomination beforehand.

A spokeswoman at PublishAmerica, which has 65 fiction titles on its online rack, said she was not aware that the 2000 novel was up for a 2002 Pulitzer. She also said that she was unfamiliar with Swiger's background, but that he was collecting royalty checks like all of their other authors.