Dead Even

Lawyer Sara Tate is in danger of losing her new job with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office if she doesn't get noticed fast. Smart and tough—a fighter who makes things happen—she grabs a high-profile burglary case that could make her career. There are two problems: Sara's husband, Jared, is the attorney for the defense . . . and she's been warned that if she does not get a conviction, Jared will be killed. What she doesn't know is that her husband has received a similar threat. Unless his client walks, Sara's life is over.

Unaware of the stakes on the other side and forced to keep their secrets from each other, husband and wife become bitter adversaries, locked in a vicious head-to-head battle in the courtroom and at home. And there can be no victor in this struggle.

No matter who wins . . . someone dies.

Brad Meltzer's first novel, The Tenth Justice, was an instant New York Times bestseller when published as the launch title of Rob Weisbach Books. At the youthful age of 27, Meltzer was the youngest novelist on bestseller lists across the country. Paperback rights to the book were sold at auction to Warner Books for a seven-figure sum, and the movie rights were optioned by Fox 2000. Meltzer even flirted with Hollywood stardom, playing himself as an extra in Woody Allen's upcoming film.

One year later, 28-year-old Meltzer has written his much anticipated second novel, Dead Even, an energetic legal thriller that pits husband against wife in a shocking catch-22 situation. Following a six-month stint of unemployment, Sara Tate is eager to relaunch her career in the New York district attorney's office. However, when budget cutbacks are announced, the last hired is the first fired, and Sara's job is in jeopardy. Determined to keep her job in the DA's office, Sara is coerced by colleagues to take a case that will keep her in trial for months. The one thing that she doesn't know is that the case -- intended for a senior staffer -- is not what it appears to be: an apparently routine burglary hides a deadly conspiracy.

Meanwhile, Sara's husband, Jared, a defense attorney, has been warned by his firm's superiors that he needs to bring in new clients or he won't make partner. With this need for new clients, he jumps at the opportunity to take a case defending a wealthy new client. But soon Jared discovers that he's been set up. This wealthy new client is the same one Sara is set to prosecute. They both face the ultimate peril: Win the case at all costs or the other will die.

Publishers Weekly

Just when you thought there were no more changes to be rung on the legal thriller, Meltzer follows up his bestselling inside look at the Supreme Court ("The Tenth Justice") with this sleek, suspenseful, only slightly unbelievable story about two young New York lawyers in love and in danger. Sara Tate and Jared Lynch are married to each other and to their legal careers: he's a rising star for the defense in a big firm; she's just starting as an assistant district attorney after six months of job seeking. On her first day, Sara hears that a budget cut could put her back on the unemployment lines, so she swipes a burglary case earmarked for a top man in the pecking order. But this is more than a routine burglary, and a powerful villain named Oscar Rafferty wants it to go away. He hires Jared to defend the accused, a sadistic monster called Tony Kozlow, telling him that unless Kozlow walks, Sara dies. While Jared grapples with the moral issues involved, and avoids telling Sara about the threat for hundreds of pages, another nasty type (whose fingerprints match several dead criminals) pushes Sara's grandfather down a flight of subway stairs and says he'll do worse to Jared unless Kozlow is convicted. Fearing for each other's safety, their marriage cracking under the strain, Sara and Jared joust in front of a grand jury and then get ready for trial, with Sara helped over some serious speed bumps by a nicely sketched young assistant and a tough prosecutor with a romantic interest. Several murders and a subway shoot-out eventually resolve this somewhat overlong but definitely compelling tale of legal and extralegal adventure.

No stodgy legal thrillers here: Brad Meltzer s exhaustively researched, swiftly paced, enormously inventive novels feature young, whip-smart characters who find themselves in high places -- which means they have a long way to fall. The mix, and the suspense, make for an intoxicating read.