The Local by Joey Hartstone

THE LOCAL by Joey Hartstone is an impressive courtroom drama set in East Texas in a small town called Marshall. The narrator and main character of this debut murder mystery has the absolutely fabulous name of Jimmy Euchre. He’s a practicing patent attorney, the “local” in a federal district which according to The Dallas News was indeed the busiest in the country for patent law, although that may be changing. Euchre has been hired by the New York based firm of Gordon & Greene to work with Abe Rabinowitz and Layla Stills on an infringement case involving a high tech and transport company called Medallion, headed by Amir Zawar. The chapters introducing all of these characters were fun and quick moving, reminiscent of the Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer. Shortly after their initial time in court a prominent local official is murdered and Euchre shifts to criminal law, acting as defense attorney. He and Layla are aided by a private investigator, Lisa ‘the Leg’ Morgan. The middle section drags a bit, but the ending offers a nice surprise and potential for future cases. Hartstone is an accomplished writer for film (two features directed by Rob Reiner) and television (The Good Fight; Your Honor) so Grisham and Turow readers will certainly enjoy this legal thriller. I also recommend THE LOCAL to fans of S.J. Rozan’s Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series; there’s plenty of feisty-ness on display.