The Local: A Legal Thriller

In the East Texas town of Marshall sits the federal courthouse of the Eastern District of Texas, a place revered by patent lawyers for the court's adherence to 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 lawyers 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. In a heated moment during the preliminary hearing, Zawar threatens the judge in court. Later that night, Judge Gardner is found murdered in the courthouse parking lot. All signs point to Zawar--he publicly threatened the judge, he was staying at a house near the courthouse, he has no alibi. Moreover, he is an outsider, a wealthy Pakistani-American businessman, the son of immigrants, who stands accused of killing a powerful federal judge in a small Texas town.

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 he reluctantly agrees. 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 worse, set a murderer free.

Joey Hartstone is a new, resonant voice in commercial fiction, and his debut is a small-town legal thriller as big in scope as Texas. The Local crackles with tension, high stakes gambits, and a gangbuster narrative that races to the final, shocking verdict.