Friday, May 1, 2020

The Jury is: You!


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: To Kill A Mockingbird. Presumed Innocent. Defending Jacob. Twelve Angry Men. Oh, don’t even get me started. I adore legal thrillers, and devour them.

(And may I say? THE MURDER LIST was the NUMBER ONE legal thriller on Amazon this week. And here is the astonishing proof! Whoa. And um, now it is ON SALE! for 1.99. Whoa.)

But didn’t you adore Adam’s Rib? A Few Good Men. Compulsion. Witness for the Prosecution. Oh, as I said. Don’t get me started. But attorney/author Michael Kahn—welcome to Jungle Red!--has some faves of his own.

Great Legal Thrillers


by Michael Kahn, author of BAD TRUST: A Rachel Gold Mystery



"Do you ever wish you could write a real novel?"

Ah, yes. The Question.

Every writer of legal thrillers hears it. Usually served with a withering disclaimer, such as "I confess I haven't read any of your works" or "I'm just not what one might call an aficionado of the whodunit." As if the commandments Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai included, "Thou shalt place no Perry Masons before thee."

Welcome to the world of the literary snob, that rarified zone where the so-called genre fictions — mysteries, horror, romance — are the riffraff of fiction, grubbing out an existence in that noisy rock quarry far beneath that celestial realm known as "literature.” And no amount of examples from Erle Stanley Gardner to Scott Turow will convince our snob. That’s because, as he will snidely point out, you won’t find those books on the syllabus of any Great World Literature college course.

Okay. Let’s take him up on that claim. He may not realize that the legal thriller, with its courtroom clash of vivid personalities, compelling facts, and moral dilemmas, has inspired playwrights and novelists for centuries. 

Fictional lawyers and trials have played a significant role in literary classics since at least Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th century masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, whose cast of pilgrims includes the Man of Law. Others might point further back to the trial of Socrates in 399 B.C.E.

I’ve picked three of my favorite literary classics that use the courtroom as their dramatic engine. All three would make any snob’s list of great literature. The common theme in these three is a grim one: a courtroom is no place to seek justice, redemption, or satisfactory closure.

We readers watch from the courtroom gallery as the legal system grinds out injustice in the name of the law in these brilliant works of literature.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Bleak House is one of the greatest novels by one of the giants of English literature. It is also, in the words of one legal scholar, “the ultimate indictment of law, lawyers, and the legal system in the English language."
The engine of this novel is a massive trusts-and-estates case that has been slogging through the Court of Chancery for decades. In a novel filled with wonderfully Dickensian names—the money-grubbing attorney Vholes, the arrogant baronet Sir Dedlock, the sleazy loan shark Smallweed—it is fitting that the lawsuit’s name sounds more like a double dose of symptoms from a liver ailment: Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

The essence of what Dickens has to say about justice and the legal system is captured in the novel’s extraordinary first chapter—which, in my view, is the most vivid opening chapter in all of English literature. It starts with the equivalent of a Hollywood tracking shot through the streets of London on a cold and muddy November morning:

“As much mud in the streets, as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill."


The sky is overcast, the city shrouded in fog, as we approach the Court of Chancery:

"The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest, near that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation: Temple Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the very heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery.”

Dickens then introduces us to the proceedings underway. He captures that lawsuit, every bit as foggy and dangerous as London itself, in one magical paragraph, which begins:

“This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least; but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes, without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises.

Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit.”

Finish reading that paragraph, and the rest of that enthralling first chapter, and you will be hooked.

Billy Budd: Foretopman by Herman Melville

The manuscript for this remarkable novella was discovered among Herman Melville’s papers after his death. Finally published three decades later in 1924, it’s now recognized as a masterpiece, second only to Moby Dick amount Melville’s works.

The pretrial plot is fairly straightforward: Set in 1797, the British Navy has been rocked by two mutinies. Billy Budd, a guileless young seaman, is impressed into duty by a warship in need of sailors as the Royal Navy struggles to confront Napoleon’s navy. The cheerful, innocent Billy, an orphan, is soon the favorite of the crew on his new ship. His only flaw: He stutters severely when under distress.

The malevolent master-at-arms, John Claggert, develops a hatred of young Billy, perhaps based on jealousy, and eventually accuses him of conspiring to mutiny—a profoundly serious charge in the aftermath of the other two mutinies. The ship’s decent and honorable captain, Edward Fairfax Vere, summons both men to his cabin, where he has Claggert repeat his false charge. Billy is literally rendered speechless—so upset that he is unable to respond to the accusation. The Captain, knowing the charge is false, tries to soothe him, but Billy, unable to speak, punches Claggert, who drops to the deck and dies.

Believing the law and the concern over the prior mutinies leaves him no choice, Captain Vere reluctantly convenes a drumhead court, i.e., a court martial held aboard a ship at sea. The trial, the jury deliberations, and the aftermath are among the most powerful and poignant scenes in all of Melville’s writings. Spoiler alert: the epilogue may make you misty-eyed as you read the words of the ballad sung by sailors around the world in memory of poor Billy.

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare


The trial in Act IV of The Merchant of Venice has long been recognized as one of the most dramatic scenes in all of Shakespeare. It takes place in the Court of the Duke of Venice, where Shylock comes seeking to enforce a promissory note signed by Antonio, the merchant of the play’s title.

That note contains the infamous bond provision: If Antonio defaults, Shylock is entitled to the security pledged, namely, a pound of Antonio’s flesh. While that bond may seem absurdly grotesque outside the context of the play, by the time Shylock arrives in court he is by far the most complex and compelling character in the play, and the enforcement he demands makes sense within the play’s version of Venice.

Indeed, earlier in the play, when it appears that Antonio may default, one of Antonio’s friends asks Shylock why he would ever enforce such a bond. What is a pound of Antonio’s flesh good for? His answer, one of the most famous passages in all of Shakespeare, is “revenge”--revenge for the ways Antonio has abused him because of his religion:

“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?

Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

If you poison us, do we not die?

And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.

If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?

Revenge.

If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example?

Why, revenge!”

The great Shakespeare critic William Hazlett describes the courtroom scene in Act IV as “a masterpiece of dramatic skill,” explaining that “the legal acuteness, the passionate declamations, the sound maxims of jurisprudence, the wit and irony interspersed in it, the fluctuations of hope and fear in the different persons, and the completeness and suddenness of the catastrophe, cannot be surpassed."


Enjoy, in the theater or in one of the motion picture adaptations, including the most recent one with Al Pacino as Shylock.

So those are three of my favorite works of literature that qualify as legal thrillers. So here is my request: can you offer one or more legal thrillers from your own reading lists? Any language, any country, any century will do.

HANK: Oh, how wonderful! Loved reading this, and so wonderfully thoughtful. (Don’t you enjoy being here? Oh, we think about such wonderful things!) But I am in love with legal thrillers, as you well know, and listed above. I have left out SO many! So yes, Reds and readers, what are your favorites?

And hey--a copy of BAD TRUST to one lucky commenter, and THE MURDER LIST ebook to FIVE lucky commenters!






MICHAEL KAHN

A trial lawyer by day and a writer by night, Michael Kahn is the award-winning author of ten Rachel Gold novels (including his latest, BAD TRUST, the stand-alone novel THE SIRENA QUEST, another stand-alone novel THE MOURNING SEXTON (under the pen name Michael Baron); and several short stories.

His latest novel, PLAYED!, was published in July of 2017. As Kirkus Reviews wrote, “the spectacle of these ornaments of the Missouri bar attacking, undermining, and double-crossing each other provides brisk, sprightly entertainment, and the hapless defendant’s baseball background comes into play just when it’s most needed.”

A former elementary school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mike wrote his first novel, GRAVE DESIGNS, on a challenge from his wife Margi, who got tired of listening to the same answer whenever she asked him about a book he was reading. “Not bad,” he would say, “but I could write a better book than that.”

“Then write one,” she finally said, “or please shut up. I don’t want to hear you fifty years from now telling your great-grandkids that you could have written a book.”

BAD TRUST

In this fascinating and fast-paced legal thriller, attorney Rachel Gold learns that family doesn't always come first...

An ugly trust fund dispute among siblings turns deadly when Isaiah, CEO of the family firm he stole from their father, is murdered in his office. St. Louis attorney Rachel Gold, hired to bring suit against Isaiah on behalf of his sisters, must now defend one against the charge of fratricide.

As Rachel and her team seek essential evidence, the widowed Rachel struggles with family issues of her own, including relationships with her young son Sam and her boyfriend Abe. The jury is still out on whether or not Rachel can create the work-life balance she is seeking.

Bad Trust, the 11th book in the fascinating Attorney Rachel Gold Mysteries, is the perfect pick for fans of Lisa Scottoline and Sara Paretsky.












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88 comments:

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  2. Congratulations on your newest book, Michael. I do enjoy legal thrillers and I’m looking forward to reading this one . . . .

    Favorites? “To Kill a Mockingbird" and Hank's "The Murder List;" Steve Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn books make my list of favorites as do John Grisham's books . . . .

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    1. Oh, yes, I have just read one Steve Cavanagh, and I really loved it. I will have to check out the rest!

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    2. I agree, Joan and Hank. I had never read any of Steve's novels until I was asked to interview him at a book event in St. Louis for THE PLEA. I was blown away by the novel--and then doubly blown away to hear his accent and discovery that this author who'd brilliantly depicted the legal world in the U.S. was actually from Ireland. He is a delightful and charming man.

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  3. Some of my favorites would include “Presumed Innocent” by Scott Turow; Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution;” “ Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt. A number of Anne Perry’s William Monk books have centered around trials, most recently “Dark Tide Rising.” Of course Harriet Vane was on trial in “Strong Poison” I believe.
    Your latest book sounds wonderful, Michael!

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    1. Oh, love Strong Poison. I just may have to read that again, thanks to you !

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    2. Good picks, Pat! Scott's book really changed that genre. I was 2 years behind Scott at our college and 2 years behind him at our law school and as tell him I'm still at least 2 million behind him in sales. He's a good guy and great writer.

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  5. Congratulations Michael on your latest Rachel Gold book. I have enjoyed reading the Rachel Gold mysteries from the beginning, and like how Rachel has evolved and struggles to balance both her professional and personal lives.

    I was fortunate enough to get an eARC of Bad Trust and enjoyed reading it, so please do not include me in the drawing for the book.

    Other legal thrillers I enjoyed include Sheldon Siegel's Rosie Fernandez and Mike Daley series set in San Francisco, Defending Jacob by William Landay and of course, Hank's The Murder List!

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    1. Thank you! And how wonderful that you are already a fan. Terrific! Are you watching Defending Jacob on TV? And thank you for the kind words! xxx

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    2. Thanks, Grace. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Writing is a lonely activity--and thus it's always so nice to learn that someone has enjoyed your book.

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    3. Hank, I don't think I can see the Defending Jacob TV show in Canada.

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  6. I have dealt with literary snobs and classical music snobs for most of my educational and professional career. The tough thing about comparing any new work to the great classics of music and literature is that what we write, read, and listen to now is the unfiltered mass, whereas classical music draws from the most golden of golden oldies list of all time greatest hits, and literature does the same.

    Sturgeon's Law reminds us that 90% of everything (new) is crap. The only way to get more of the gems that will last for centuries is to churn out as much crap as possible and hope some of it stands the test of time. We, in the here and now, don't actually get to decide what the eternal stuff is. We only get to select the stuff we want to read and hear again and hope that, maybe, our offspring will like it, too.

    So tell your stories. Write your music. Do as much of it as you can. Then tell the snobs to stuff their opinions up their bums, assuming there is any room left there around the edges of the stick already in residence.

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    1. We do rely on you, Gigi! XO. What is sturgeons law?

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    2. I agree, Gigi. I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about my fantasy afterlife for certain authors who died unknown or convinced they were failures but who are now cherished and widely read. My fantasy is that they can look down on us in delight and amazement at how celebrated they are today. Three of the several on my list are Herman Melville (who died in obscurity toiling for the Custom House), F. Scott Fitzgerald (who died in his early 40s after his novel The Great Gatsby was bombed by the critics), and Emily Dickinson. Others include Jane Austen, whose probably had more movie and TV versions of her novels in the last 25 years than any other novelist, living or dead. Meanwhile, check out the list of Pulitzer Prize winners from 50 or 60 years ago. Most are long forgotten and little read. So yes, tell you stories, write your music, and don't worry about your legacy.

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    3. Hank, Sturgeon's Law, named after SF writer Ted Sturgeon, says that 90% of everything is crap.

      Michael, never forget that the critics of the day though Ben Jonson was a far superior playwright to W. Shakespeare, and their children, many years later, proclaimed to the world that William Dean Howells was THE hot novelist ("the Shakespeare of his age" no less!) exceeding Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, who were hacks. There are parallels in music.

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  7. Congratulations on your new release!

    I'm sure other books will come to mind after another mug of coffee, but the murder trial in Where The Crawdads Sing takes the idyllic girlhood plot in a totally different direction. Did she or didn't she?

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    1. I always wondered where that came from in the plot, too. It seems so… Strangely tacked on. Not anything bad, just… Surprising. and we should talk about how that worked out :-)

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    2. Margaret, my wife Margi LOVED Where the Crawdads Sing and has told me I need to read it. I promise to you and Margi that now I will.

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  8. Congratulations on the new release!

    A legal thriller that stands out to me is the whole Barbara Holloway series by Kate Wilhelm. In particular I found By Stone By Blade By Fire one of the most haunting things I have ever read.

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    1. Oh, I don’t know those books at all! Wow! Off to check them out…

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    2. I confess I don't know her books, Susan. I'm making a note to pick one up. Thanks for the recommendation!

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  9. That scene from "Merchant of Venice" is classic.

    People forget that Dickens, Shakespeare and (I believe) Melville were writing for the "masses" of their day. Dickens published serially in newspapers, being paid by the word. He wrote to support a family. Shakespeare sought the patronage of nobility for the same reason, but The Globe Theatre was packed with the common man come to enjoy his works.

    I'm sure the snobs of their day said the same as those today who think of the legal thriller as "lesser" in some way.

    I love a good legal thriller. DEFENDING JACOB was brilliant, TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD, and Hank's THE MURDER LIST. And if I ever am cruising the TV and come across "Twelve Angry Men" or "Inherit the Wind," I'm sure to stop and watch.

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    1. Oh, yes! We watched inherit the wind again, every six months ago, and it is fascinating. Very very dated, of course, but fascinating. Gene Kelly, isn’t it? As H.L, Mencken?

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    2. I once had the privilege to be cast as a female E.K. Hornbeck in a community theatre production of Inherit The Wind. Delivering the line "Barnum bunkum Bible beating bastard" was one of the high points of my very limited community theatre career!

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    3. Great stuff, you three! I confess that Defending Jacob was tough to read--not because of the quality of the writing (which is excellent) but the tension. I was kind of a wimp, but made it through to the end. And yes, Liz, you are absolutely correct. I have always thought that mass culture popularity of a certain genre attracts the most talented artists of that era--which explains Shakespeare in his time, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. of their era, Dickens (and other great 19th Century authors) in that time, and perhaps TV writers in our era. And poor Herman Melville was enormously popular until Moby Dick, which bizarrely destroyed his career. Nothing is odder and sadder than reading some of the reviews of his novel back when it was published.

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  10. Legal thrillers! Of course Hank's THE MURDER LIST is absolutely at the top of my list. So riveting.

    I'm a huge fan of the genre. Presumed Innocent. Witness for the Prosecution. To Kill a Mockingbird, Defending Jacob. And I"m reading Scott Turow's forthcoming THE LAST TRIAL which is beyond great. And as I was reading it, it occurred to me how much arguing a criminal case is really a form of storytelling. Explaining without boring. Leaving breadcrumbs. Creating suspense. Having said that, when it doesn't work, reading it can be like watching paint dry.

    My question for Michael: when you're writing courtroom procedure, do you tend to write MORE than you need and pare away, or write spare and add as needed? Because I think gettiing just the right amount is very tricky.

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    1. , I absolutely cannot wait to read the news got to roll. Lucky you!
      And as for your question I will answer before michael does :-) in the murder list I had such a great jury deliberation same. I loved it. In the first edit, my editor said: “this is the best jury deliberation scene I have ever read! And it all has to go.”

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    2. Hallie, I think one of the reasons trial lawyers write courtroom dramas is that the essential elements of a powerful and memorable trial are also the essential elements of a good courtroom thriller, namely, compelling witnesses, a believable story, strong characters, etc. For the trial lawyer, your goal is to convince your jury. For the author, your goal is to convince your jury, namely, your readers.

      As for your question, Hallie, I probably do more paring then adding. And yes, getting the right amount is VERY tricky, especially if the trial hinges on a somewhat obscure area of the law. You need to help the reader understand and care about the issue.

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  11. Food for thought! As Rhys said in the writing workshop she taught in Italy, all fiction is mystery.

    Last summer I reread an old book from my personal library, Anatomy of a Murder, written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert Traver. Voelker based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney. It's very noir, and a thick, juicy book with a lot of tension and plot twists.

    Hank, I was thinking of you the other day. Defending Jacob is coming out as a movie. I read that book because you so strongly recommended it. In the film, Michele Dockery plays the mother, Chris Evans is the dad.

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    1. Yes! We are watching it right now! Are you?

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    2. No, I thought it was a movie, not a TV show!

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    3. Karen, many year ago I wrote a similar article entitled "Mysteries for Literary Snobs." I laid out the basic elements of the genre and then showed how several of our greatest works of literature fit squarely within that genre, from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (the search for the missing mysterious Kurtz) to William Faulkner's Absalom Absalom (the murder mystery the narrator tries to solve). Indeed, even Hamlet is arguably a murder mystery that even includes the play-within-a-play that more recent authors have used. So yes, there are plenty of great mystery novels lurking over there in the Literature aisle.

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  12. I'm happy that the " then write one ..." of your wife brought you to write books that you would like. I'm also curious to read what came of it.
    With the exception of Hank's : The Murder List, that I loved, I can't name a legal thriller. They usually are not my first choice in books, not because I'm a snob but because I often find the procedures very long and fastidious.
    However, with a good recommendation, I can be lured to try some.
    Don't put me in the draw for Hank's book as I already have it.

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    1. Oh, thank you! And when they are good, they are truly fabulous!

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    2. I understand, Danielle. I often suggest Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent as a good entry into the genre, although good old Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason series sold more books than even John Grisham.

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  13. When I was the reading teacher in a small rural school there was a particular English teacher who had the students read Literature. But to her Literature was made up of Classics and as best I can figure out that meant that it had to have been written at least 50 years ago, even longer was better. No point in arguing with her but those poor students were missing out on a lot of very good Literature.

    And that word reminds me of a friend who met a man who described himself as an author. She wasn't aware of that so she asked him what kinds of books he wrote. Literature, was his answer!

    I know I have read and loved many legal thrillers and right now I cannot think of any except for Hank's. Hank, your book has knocked all the others out of my head!

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    1. Judi! I just burst out laughing! Thank you!



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    2. Agreed, Judi. Forcing junior high and high school kids to read certain classics is the best way to convince them to never again read anything labeled "classic"--which is a tragedy, since some awesome works of literature--such as, for example, George Eliot's Middlemarch or Homer's The Odyssey--are best read as adults. But if you've discourage those readers earlier on, they will never read them. To quote Mark Twain, "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

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  14. Michael, welcome to Jungle Reds! That line "I confess I have not read any of your works (books)" reminded me of an incident a while ago. I was at a book event (NOT at a bookstore) for Leah Hager Cohen and the host was introducing the author when she said "I confess I have not read any of your books". I was shocked by that comment. I grew up knowing that it was important to do my homework. If I was in the host's position, I would have read the book, maybe skim the book if time was limited, Before introducing the author. The author was gracious about that faux pas.

    Diana

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    1. Oh, that is incredible! What a confession… That might’ve been the moment just to not say anything, right?

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    2. That's right. I was really embarrassed for the author.

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    3. I agree. At the very least, the host should have read the synopsis and pretended to have read the entire book. As I mentioned in an earlier reply, I had never heard of Steve Cavanagh when I was asked to interview him at an event for his latest novel. Making sure I could locate a synopsis if needed, I skeptically opened the novel to the first chapter and, thankfully and delightfully, was totally hooked.

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    4. And interestingly, I had really thought about, several years ago, whether I could write a book where the killer was on the jury. And I could not figure out a way to make it happen! He did. Even though it was kind of wild and crazy.

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    5. Hank, thanks for the FYI regarding your book. I just got the Murder List for $1. 99! What a great deal!

      Diana

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  15. Congratulations on your new Rachel Gold legal thriller, Michael. I remember Bleak House by Charles Dickens was about a court case that lasted generations, right? Did you think that Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice was Racist in terms of making an ethnic group the bad guys?

    Hank, Congratulations on the Murder List!

    Right now I cannot think of any legal thrillers except for Hank's legal thrillers.

    Diana

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    1. An excellent and profound question, Diana. While it is risky to impose 21st Century standards on a work from 400 years ago--or even a more recent work, such as Huckleberry Finn--I confess I was amazed and, as a fellow Jew, disturbed when I discovered that Merchant of Venice was one of Shakespeare's comedies and that Shylock, at least back then, was viewed as a comic villain (sort of a Snidely Whiplash of that era) and not a tragic figure. While that trial scene is absolutely brilliant, it's also absolutely painful to watch Shylock get tricked into losing his claim and, in the process, losing all his money and property. Over time, the depiction of Shylock has changed (see, e.g., Al Pacino's portrayal) but the dialogue, of course, has remained the same.

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  16. Michael, I love your examples. If I am to start reading Dickens having been subjected in my English boarding school, your description would get me there. The Masterpiece series didn't move me like your description. I also studied the Merchant of Venice, and I don't remember any of the real issues in the court scene being raised. I know education isn't a waste but sometimes I think of mine and despair. Made up for it since. Being cowed by Gigi, I'm nervous about my choice. While Dorothy Sayers Strong Poison is good, I will nominate Clouds of Witness. A murder trial in the House of Lords? Peter Wimsey driving through the night. The description of the moors, and the terrified woman. I rest my case.

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    1. I’m with you! Clouds of Witness was much more exciting than Strong Poison.

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    2. Ditto, Celia. Good choice to add to my list!

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    3. Oh, gosh, Celia! Now I have to find my copy of Clouds of Witness!

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    4. I am finding that this very instant.

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  17. Congratulations on your new Rachel Gold legal thriller. Your examples are wonderful. I read the classics which I appreciated, enjoyed and understood. Way back classics started my enjoyment of reading and still do. Paul Levine's novels are captivating as are Philip Margolin.

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    1. Haven't read Paul Levine's novels. I will add them to my list. And yes, Philip Margolin is a perfect example of why good trial lawyers write good courtroom dramas. He was a true pro in the courtroom and now a true pro in the courtroom novels.

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    2. , They are both fabulous! That authenticity really shines through!

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  18. I confess, I look down on literary novels. I quite often find them boring. However, I also try to keep in mind that everyone has different tastes, and that's okay. If others enjoy them, that's wonderful. Give me a mystery any day.

    Congrats on the new book.

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    1. End it sometimes depends on when you read them. I remember being forced to read The Age of Innocence in high school, and thought it was headbangingly boring. Now it is one of my favorite books ever ever.

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  19. Welcome Michael, and congratulations. How wonderful to be able to anticipate another of your Rachel Gold books in this time of voracious reading, not that the plague makes me read any more than usual, which is constantly!

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    1. Thanks, Ann. Stay safe and healthy during these strange times.

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  20. I also want to congratulate Julia. HID FROM OUR EYES is one of the books Louise Penny is recommending in her May Newsletter!

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  21. Hi, Michael, and congrats on your book! I must say no other guest has ever prompted me to hunt down my copy of Bleak House before breakfast1 So wonderful to reread those opening pages! While I haven't read Melville's Billy Budd, I have seen the opera. Score by Benjamin Britten, libretto by E.M. Forster. It's a very moving production.

    To all the legal thrillers already recommended, I'd add The Verdict by Nick Stone. And I'm now going to look up your Rachel Gold books!

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    1. Oh yes, Debs, I remember you recommending that! And I got it as a result… Let me go find that now :-)

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    2. Thanks, Deborah. I will add that Nick Stone novel to my list. I have heard wonderful things about the Billy Budd opera and will track it down. While Billy Budd is a wonderful, powerful novella, Melville could have used an editor for it. Unfortunately, he had been dead for more than 30 years when the manuscript was discovered and published. Just another reason for my fantasy of an afterlife for wonderful authors who died in obscurity but are now celebrated and widely read.

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  22. Congratulations on your new release, Michael! Such a great series!

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    1. Thanks, Jenn. That's very sweet.

      And sorry about that prior deleted post, which was supposed to be for Deborah's comment above--and which I re-posted there. I guess I do not have a bright future in tech support!

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  24. Welcome, Michael! And I am having so much fun reading all of these comments. Are you having trouble writing these days? Tell us a little bit about your state of writing mind .

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    1. Crazy times indeed--between my law practice and writing this has been quite a challenge. What has been fascinating are the articles that discuss all of the prior works of fiction about plagues and pandemics. I had no idea there had been so many . . . and not just recent but going back in time for centuries, including Boccaccio's 14th Century masterpiece The Decameron, which is the story of 10 people who flee the city to go to the countryside to escape the deadly effects of the Black Plague, which was tearing through Italy at that time. Nothing is new. I found this quote by Marcus Aurelius, who lived during the Antonine Plague of 165 CE, a global pandemic that wiped out more than 10 million people. He wrote the following, which is as true today as then: "Bear in mind constantly that all of this has happened before and will happen again—the same plot from beginning to end, the identical staging. Produce them in your mind, as you know them from experience or from history: the court of Hadrian, of Antoninus. The courts of Philip, Alexander, Croesus. All just the same. Only the people different."

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  25. And isn’t it fun to see how many fans you have? So great!

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  26. Levin's Compulsion. I think I was 15 when I read it. I was hooked on Clarence Darrow, and on the law. All of Perry Mason that I could find. I thought I should be a lawyer back then, I even went to trials during high school breaks. Then I found out how hard lawyers had to work. Not for me. I will stand in line at midnight for one of yours Michael or Marcia Clark's or Hank, natch Hanks.

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    1. I just burst into tears! Thank you!

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    2. And yes, I absolutely love that movie! It is chilling, and compelling, and riveting.

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  27. Congratulations! Your book sounds compelling. I have read Michael Connelly's books and James Grippando's which are unforgettable. I enjoyed the classics since that is what I was brought up on and told to start reading when I was young. Glad that I did. Extremely worthwhile and memorable.

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    1. Michael Connelly is a terrific crime writer. I think I've read every one of his novels. Grippando is a good one, too. Hope you enjoy mine!

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    2. Sounds like the perfect new book for you, traveler! Xx

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  28. Michael, I love how you take classics and show how they fit in the mystery genre, especially the legal thriller examples you have given here. Is there access to the article you wrote that you mentioned to Karen, about classics fitting the mystery genre. It's amusing to know that some literary snobs have actually read the very genre they dismiss. I really don't understand how people can limit their reading to what they consider "approved" literature. They miss so much.

    I agree with so many others here that Hank's The Murder List is one of my favorite legal thrillers. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow is also amazing. I got to hear Scott Turow speak years ago, and I was surprised at how entertaining he was as a speaker, too. Then, I have to include To Kill a Mockingbird, as I even kept loving it after teaching it. I hope the students will read it as an adult, because I've become convinced that having a novel taught to you can kill any affection for it. I was an ardent fan of John Grisham in the early years, but I haven't read him in a while. I have had Defending Jacob on my TBR list for some years, and I don't know why I haven't gotten to it yet. I'd like to think I'll read it before the television series comes out, but I'm just not sure, as I'm so far behind on my reading now (tough past month with my mother-in-law's health). And, I still have Steve Cavanagh's The Thirteen I want to read.

    Now, enter Michael and his Rachel Gold series, which sounds wonderful. I'll be looking at it.

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    1. Thanks, Kathy. I hope you enjoy Rachel and her crew. I warn you that her best buddy Benny Goldberg is, well, somewhat crude. But, at least for me, totally lovable!

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    2. Michael, make sure KATHY has your book! She is an A number one top notch fabulous reviewer!

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    3. Aw, Hank, you are such a great supporter! Thanks!

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  29. Michael, I just bought your novel BAD TRUST from Apple Books. I thought it was easier for me to add ebooks from you and Hank.

    Diana

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  30. Your book series sounds very interesting. I am going to start with the first one so I can see how the character develops overtime. I also have enjoyed reading Marcus Aurelius' thoughts.

    I also read To Kill a Mockingbird, the Murder List, and Presumed Innocent like most everyone else. It still breaks my heart about Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird. Books help shape the way that we choose to live.

    Diane

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    1. “Like most everyone else” :-)! One can only hope… Thank you!

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    2. And yes, the way Harper Lee made that heartbreaking was so brilliant.

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