Product Description

Lawyer Billy Strobe believes in the law-but always seems to be on the wrong side of it-in this "powerful [and] satisfying" (Publishers Weekly) suspense novel from the author of The Alternate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2272797 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-16
• Released on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

From 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.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This is the fourth novel by the highprofile trial 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 or John Lescroart. Billy Strobe is a law student who, through a combination of peer pressure and stupidity, winds up in jail. While finishing his degree by mail, he becomes an expert jailhouse lawyer; when a lucky break springs him early, he vows to exonerate a fellow convict, a man Billy believes was unjustly convicted of murder. He also decides to clear his father's name (Joe Strobe, a noted attorney, apparently committed suicide many years ago). This is a legal thriller in the manner that Dickens might have written it: an epic story that takes Billy through the many layers of society, bumping him up against heroes and villains; a story of an underdog, pretty much alone in the world, up against seemingly insurmountable odds. Give this remarkable novel to literary-thriller fans not averse to stretching the bounds of the genre. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
John Martel is an ex-U.S. Air Force pilot, a lawyer in the San Francisco firm of Farella, Braun & Martel, and a veteran of more than one hundred trials (with only four losses). He has been hailed by the National Law Journal as one of the top ten trial lawyers in America. He is the author of The Alternate, Partners, and Conflicts of Interest.