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Overview
Billy Strobe had always dreamed of becoming a lawyer like his father, the best criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma, until alcoholism, allegations of fraud, and a suicide on the eve of his imprisonment ended Joe Strobe’s life. But not Billy’s dream. Haunted by his belief in his father’s innocence, Billy is determined to become a lawyer, to uncover the truth, and to clear his father’s name. His ambition and intelligence carry him to the top of his class at law school, but a college stock market scam goes south and lands him in a high-security prison serving three to five years. Undaunted, Billy earns protection in prison by becoming a jailhouse lawyer, and winning the friendship of Darryl Orton, a soft-spoken but courageous lifer whom Billy soon believes was framed for a murder he didn’t commit.Upon his release, Billy immediately gets to work clearing the names of the two men he respects most in life. But things are not as they seem, and Billy’s dual quest for justice will lead him to into high level conspiracies and vicious murders, ultimately forcing him to choose between loyalty and the safety of himself and a woman his has come to love.
Editorials
Booklist
This is the fourth novel by the high-profile attorney (more than a hundred trials, only four defeats) and it may be his best. It is certainly better than most of the output of John Grisham and equal to the best of Philip Margolin.... This is a legal thriller in the manner that Dickens might have written it.Publishers Weekly
Full of twists and turns, wit and well-drawn characters, Martel's fourth novel (after 1999's The Alternate) ... [presents] a realistic portrait of a young man coming to grips with the truth about his father and himself.... Powerful prison sequences have the ring of authenticity, as do the courtroom and office scenes, attesting to Martel's professional expertise (he is one of the nation's top ten trial lawyers, according to the National Law Journal). This satisfying summer legal thriller should assure Martel the growing readership he deserves.Publishers Weekly
Full of twists and turns, wit and well-drawn characters, Martel's fourth novel (after 2001's The Alternate) manages to transcend pig jokes and Okie humor to present a realistic portrait of a young man coming to grips with the truth about his father and himself. "Mr. Billy Nobody from Enid, Oklahoma," aka Billy Strobe, is two-thirds through UCLA Law School when all hell breaks loose. In a misguided effort to make some fast cash, he engages in illegal insider trading with a frat rat "Billionaire Boys Club II" and ends up doing hard time at Soledad Prison. He has already had cause to ponder the question of justice his father, Joe Strobe, an alcoholic lawyer, killed himself after being found guilty of forgery and bribery when Strobe was just a child. In prison, Strobe strives for fair treatment for all, and drives himself to finish his degree via correspondence course. Once awarded his law degree, he devotes himself to proving the innocence of a fellow inmate, Darryl Orton, who was wrongfully convicted of murder. Becoming the poster boy of second chances, Strobe lands on his feet in a cushy job whose strategic location will enable him to find the answer to the searing question that has haunted him all his life. The powerful prison sequences have the ring of authenticity, as do the courtroom and office scenes, attesting to Martel's professional expertise (he is one of the nation's top ten trial lawyers, according to the National Law Journal). This satisfying summer legal sizzler should assure Martel the growing readership he deserves. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
An overloaded legal thriller about a white collar criminal-turned-neophyte lawyer who tries to clear his dead father's name, get his best friend out of jail, and survive as a first-year lawyer. Billy Strobe is a hard-luck "Okie" who made it through a couple years of law school in California before getting caught up in a stock-market swindle with some of his richer classmates. They ratted him out and he took the prison time. While serving it, he undergoes the usual terrorizing by his fellow prisoners, though he's able to placate their leader by offering to be his jailhouse lawyer. Billy bonds with a fellow Okie, Darryl Orton, whom Billy believes was framed for the murder he was convicted of. Amazingly enough, not only does Billy complete his law degree by correspondence, but the San Francisco firm Stanton and Snow offers him a job when he gets out of jail. Billy is no sooner a free man than he's making a six-figure salary at S&S. Not being a guy who likes to rest on his laurels, he gives himself a few extra tasks on top of the usual massive workload of a first-year lawyer: get Darryl Orton out of jail and clear the name of his, Billy's, own father, a renowned defense lawyer who, accused of corruption, committed suicide when Billy was younger. It almost sounds redundant to accuse Martel (The Alternate, 1999, etc.) of going too Grisham, but it's so. The first hundred pages work just fine, with only Billy's excessively and unbelievably cornpone narration getting in the way. But not long after Billy gets his job, Martel piles on an excess of soap-worthy plotlines that, unlike in similarly busy Grisham books, fail to contribute to a sense of urgency but merely add to the confusion. Notcontent to let a potentially fascinating character tell his story, Martel refuses to leave well enough alone and ends up with about one-third of a good legal thriller.Book Details
Published
March 9, 2012
Publisher
BookBaby
Pages
450
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781620954225