The Local by Joey Hartstone

Item: The Local
Rating: 5
Author: BaronessMom

Posted June 3, 2022 by BaronessMom in Review, Thriller and Suspense / 0 Comments

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The following book/movie/show may contain explicit language, adult themes, violence and may not be suitable for readers/viewers under 18. Discretion is strongly advised.

The Local

by Joey Hartstone

Published by Doubleday Books on June 14, 2022
Genres: Legal and Political Thriller
Pages: 320
Format: Kindle
Goodreads
BookBub
Get Your Copy at: Amazon

A freewheeling, small-town attorney takes on a national murder trial when an out-of-town client is accused of killing a federal judge in Texas.

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.

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 a writer on the Showtime series Your Honor. Joey lives in Los Angeles with his family.

The Local by Joey Hartstone is a thrilling small-town mystery that kept me guessing from the start. What an astonishing conclusion.

Will James and his team prove Amir guilty or innocent?

James Euchre

Mr. Euchre is a patent lawyer in Marshall, Texas. James is a widow with basically no life. He exists, except for his friendship with Judge Gardner. James hasn’t wanted to leave Marshall. He isn’t happy, but this is his home. Then one night, a new client, Amir Zawar, with a chip on his shoulder, decides that James is the attorney to defend him against the charge of murder. James doesn’t know what to do. Criminal isn’t his law of choice, but Amir is pushing, and he owes it to Judge Gardner.

I like Jimmy. His character grows so much throughout the story. He faces his demons and finds happiness in little things. Jimmy is intelligent, and I am sure that he will go farther than patent law now.

The Mystery

Judge Gardner is killed after the local Christmas party and left for dead. The police respond to a break-in at the house that Amir is staying at and then find the body of the judge nearby. Amir doesn’t help himself at all. He is just one of those people that can’t keep their mouth shut for anything. He is constantly crying prejudice. The local police see him as an outsider, but he doesn’t help himself. Amir constantly lies about most everything. He doesn’t want to use the truth because it could hurt his business when the truth comes out. Honestly, I did not like him. It felt like he was constantly playing with everyone around him. I don’t think he will find happiness.

This mystery kept at me. I was constantly trying to figure out who did it and why. I didn’t think that Amir did it, although sometimes I wanted him to go down for it. When Jimmy revealed whodunit. Oh, my goodness, what a shock. The culprit wasn’t even on my radar. Mr. Hartstone is a master of mystery.

Five Stars

I love the whole premise of the mystery, the setting, the characters (flaws and all), and the way the story flowed. There is the perfect amount of romance and legal jargon to pique my interest without overwhelming me. My rating for The Local by Joey Hartstone is five stars. I recommend this book to all you legal thriller readers out there. Mr. Hartstone, please keep writing. You are doing an excellent job. I hope to see your next book soon.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Local by Joey Hartstone.

Until the next time,

About Joey Hartstone

Joey Hartstone grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, a small town not unlike Marshall, Texas, the setting of The Local. After graduating from Brandeis University in 2005 with a major in political science, he moved to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a screenwriter. It took a decade of working on several reality TV shows, studying at UCLA, and writing lots of scripts that no one was reading before he wrote a screenplay about Lyndon Johnson that ultimately became the movie, LBJ, directed by Rob Reiner and staring Woody Harrelson. He also wrote the screenplay for Shock and Awe, for which he reteamed with Reiner and Harrelson. Hartstone worked with Robert and Michelle King for two seasons on the acclaimed series The Good Fight and is currently a writer and co-executive producer on Showtime’s Your Honor, starring Bryan Cranston. Joey Hartstone lives in Los Angeles with his family. He still dreams about becoming a lawyer someday, but thinks he’ll probably just stick to writing about the law for entertainment.