He Has Opportunity
And He Has No Alibi
ABOUT THE BOOK
In the town of Marshall sits the Federal courthouse of the Eastern District of Texas, a place revered by patent lawyers for its speedy jury trails and massive punitive payouts. Marshall is flooded with patent lawyers, all of whom find work being the local voice for the big-city legal teams that need to sway a small-town jury. One of the best is James Euchre.
Euchre’s new client is Amir Zawar, a firebrand CEO forced to defend his life’s work against a software patent infringement. Late one night, after a heated confrontation in a preliminary hearing, Judge Gardner is found murdered in the courthouse parking lot. All signs point to Zawar—he has motive, he has opportunity, and he has no alibi. Moreover, he is an outsider, a wealthy Pakistani-American businessman, the son of immigrants, who stands accused of killing a beloved hometown hero.
Zawar claims his innocence, and demands that Euchre defend him. It’s the last thing Euchre wants—Judge Gardner was his good friend and mentor—but the only way he can get definitive answers is to take the case. With the help of a former prosecutor and a local PI, Euchre must navigate the byzantine world of criminal defense law in a town where everyone knows everyone, and bad blood has a long history. The deeper he digs, the more he fears that he’ll either send an innocent man to death row or set a murderer free.
The Local is a small-town legal thriller as big in scope as Texas. It crackles with courtroom tension and high stakes gambits on every page to the final, shocking verdict.
| Length | 9 hours and 28 minutes |
|---|---|
| Author | Joey Hartstone |
| Narrator | Robert Petkoff |
| Audible Release Date | June 14, 2022 |
| Publisher | Random House Audio |
What’s Being Said
“A sizzling, fast-paced read that drew me in and kept me turning pages right to the end. Joey Hartstone paints a vivid picture of a small-town Texas court where old feuds and allegiances mean anything can happen.”
—William Landay, New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob
“Hartstone, who has written screenplays for film (Shock and Awe) and TV (The Good Fight), displays a sure hand with the pointed adversarial dialogue that fuels legal thrillers.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Joey Hartstone‘s debut book grabbed my interest immediately. And that’s before I listened to one word uttered by narrator Robert Petkoff. You see, I love legal novels and since there aren’t that many available, I was extremely excited to discover a new author.
This is the story of a very successful patent lawyer in Texas who, quite by accident, gets roped into defending his client in a murder trial. (Couldn’t help myself.)
When patent lawyer James Euchre is retained by a new client, things being to change quickly after the new client threatens the judge when an unfavorable ruling occurs. This is a judge who mentored Euchre, and a judge who ends up being murdered that evening. Almost immediately both the client’s and lawyer’s lives change.
This book was a wonderful blend of courtroom drama and prose. The pace was good and, though I didn’t care for all of the character development, I did like the characters.
My Concerns
My biggest concern was the relationship between Euchre and his co-counsel. It felt rushed and lacked development.
A few of the incidents couldn’t be examined too closely, since they felt a bit questionable, though people make crazy decisions and I’m not a lawyer, so who knows?
Final Thoughts
While the audiobook moved at a good pace and the plot reeled me in quickly, a few readers may find the storyline a little too simplistic. However, I was more than happy with the easy-to-follow story and the twists and turns.
Joey Hartstone is a debut author I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on. And if this happens to be the start of a series, I’ll lasso in the second book, since I thoroughly enjoyed Hartstone’s writing style. (Come on, I had to tie the last to the first of the review.)
If you like legal mysteries, this is an audiobook you’ll definitely want to check out. And, for me, it was right on the edge of receiving 5 stars.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joey Hartstone is a film and television writer. He has written two feature films, LBJ (2016) and Shock and Awe (2017), which were both directed by Rob Reiner. He wrote on the first two seasons of the legal drama The Good Fight. He is currently the showrunner and an executive producer on the Showtime series Your Honor. He is also the author of The Local, published by Doubleday in 2022. Joey lives in Los Angeles with his family.
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