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Overview
Landing a prestigious position as a Supreme Court clerk fresh out of Yale Law, Ben Addison is on the ultra-fast track to success—until he inadvertently shares a classified secret with the wrong listener. And now the anonymous blackmailer who made a killing with Ben's information is demanding more. Guilty of a criminal act, his golden future suddenly in jeopardy, Ben turns for help to his roommates—three close friends from childhood, each strategically placed near the seats of Washington power—and to his beautiful, whip-smart fellow clerk, Lisa Schulman.
But trust is a dangerous commodity in the nation's capital. And when lives, careers, and power are at stake, loyalties can shatter like glass . . . and betrayals can be lethal.
Synopsis
Friends meets The Firm in this hip and gripping legal thriller in which a conscientious Supreme Court clerk with a promising career, and his housemates-also young Washington professionals-are embroiled in a scandal that could destroy their careers and cost them their lives.
Publishers Weekly
The high price of ambition is explored in Meltzer's debut novel, a crafty legal thriller set in Washington, D.C. Ben Addison, a Yale Law School grad, is working as a clerk for a highly respected Supreme Court justice and being aggressively courted by a prestigious law firm. But this golden boy is brought down to earth when a wily con artist dupes him into revealing the confidential outcome of an upcoming Court decision involving millions of dollars. Terrified of ruining his career, Addison refuses to go to the authorities and admit his mistake. Instead, he enlists the aid of his co-clerk, Lisa, and of his conveniently well-placed D.C. housemates-Nathan, who works for the State Department; Eric, a reporter for the Washington Herald; and Ober, who clings to a menial job in a senator's office. Addison's friends also circumvent the law to help him, putting themselves at risk as lies, suspicions, accusations and betrayals threaten to tear the group apart. Addison is a difficult character to root for, not only because he is so willing to risk his friends' careers and lives to save his own, but because he seems too immature, petulant and self-absorbed. But Meltzer moves the story along at a crisp pace, spicing the action and legalese with lively banter and intriguing D.C. arcana. Meltzer's shadow-filled world will entertain most readers but it will rivet few; as Lisa says of some early threatening events: "This isn't The Firm." Major ad/promo; Literary Guild "Super Release"; author tour; audio rights to HarperAudio; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Japan, Israel and Finland; film rights to Fox 2000. (May) FYI: Meltzer, 26, wrote this novel while attending of Columbia Law School.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
When Ben Addison, a young law clerk for a powerful Supreme Court justice, is tricked into revealing the confidential outcome of an upcoming court decision, his career -- and life -- may come to an abrupt, premature end.Publishers Weekly -
The high price of ambition is explored in Meltzer's debut novel, a crafty legal thriller set in Washington, D.C. Ben Addison, a Yale Law School grad, is working as a clerk for a highly respected Supreme Court justice and being aggressively courted by a prestigious law firm. But this golden boy is brought down to earth when a wily con artist dupes him into revealing the confidential outcome of an upcoming Court decision involving millions of dollars. Terrified of ruining his career, Addison refuses to go to the authorities and admit his mistake. Instead, he enlists the aid of his co-clerk, Lisa, and of his conveniently well-placed D.C. housemates-Nathan, who works for the State Department; Eric, a reporter for the Washington Herald; and Ober, who clings to a menial job in a senator's office. Addison's friends also circumvent the law to help him, putting themselves at risk as lies, suspicions, accusations and betrayals threaten to tear the group apart. Addison is a difficult character to root for, not only because he is so willing to risk his friends' careers and lives to save his own, but because he seems too immature, petulant and self-absorbed. But Meltzer moves the story along at a crisp pace, spicing the action and legalese with lively banter and intriguing D.C. arcana. Meltzer's shadow-filled world will entertain most readers but it will rivet few; as Lisa says of some early threatening events: "This isn't The Firm." Major ad/promo; Literary Guild "Super Release"; author tour; audio rights to HarperAudio; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Japan, Israel and Finland; film rights to Fox 2000. (May) FYI: Meltzer, 26, wrote this novel while attending of Columbia Law School.Library Journal
This debut novel, a legal thriller, is also the first in a trendy new imprint.School Library Journal
YA--This story of friendship and betrayal is set in Washington, DC, where four young men who have grown up together become housemates, each with his first big job opportunity. One of them, Ben Addison, is a brand-new clerk for a Supreme Court justice. Ben and his co-clerk Lisa are two of the best and the brightest of the legal community, their intelligence only barely exceeding their egos. But early in the Court session, he is tricked into revealing the confidential outcome of an upcoming decision to a man posing as a former clerk, and one of the parties in the case uses the information to make millions. Ben is in danger of losing his job, his reputation, and any chance for a place on the ladder to legal fame and success. Desperate to find the man who tricked him, he enlists the help of Lisa and his housemates. When the elusive villain tries to blackmail Ben into revealing further Court decisions, the search becomes even more intense, and Ben realizes that one of his friends is leaking the group's plans to the blackmailer. The story builds to an action-packed and satisfying conclusion, but lives are shattered in the process and the fabric of friendship is torn apart. YAs will be confronted by issues of loyalty, integrity, and trust, and at the same time will learn much about the decision-making process of the Supreme Court.--Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VAKirkus Reviews
Loose lips sink careers in this barn-burning first novel about a Supreme Court clerk who runs his mouth to a disastrously ill-chosen confidant.The Solicitor General is often called the Court's tenth justice, but don't tell that to the Court's 18 clerks, who are convinced the world revolves around them. So it's not surprising that Justice Mason Hollis's clerk Ben Addison, who knows the results of all the Court's decisions long before they're announced, mentions one of them to Rick Fagen, one of Hollis's old clerks. Alas, Rick is an imposter who never clerked for Hollis, but who's just wormed his way into Ben's confidence to get a tip that will allow him to make millions on the insider info. Worse, Rick seems to know everything about Ben's puny efforts to find out who he really is. Does he have an in with Ben's fellow-clerk Lisa Schulman? Or could he be getting the skinny from one of Ben's roommates—senatorial assistant William Oberman, State staffer Nathan Hollister, or Washington Herald reporter Eric Stroman—all of them childhood friends? Ben determines to nail Rick for his perfidy, but Rick simply responds by stepping up the pressure, demanding further tipoffs on sensitive cases and threatening to reveal Ben's involvement to the U.S. Marshals, who are already suspicious on account of a news story Eric filed on possible Court leaks. The more Rick's noose tightens, the more suspicious and shrill Ben grows about his old friends, whose fear of their bosses and parents and whose unfailingly juvenile dialogue ("Drop it" and "He's dead" are Ben's stock responses to every new threat) suggest the Washington branch of St. Elmo's Fire.
Meltzer spins a mean paranoid fantasy that'll have you turning pages in a frenzy to learn whether Ben and his equally strung-out buddies ever grow up.