GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
The Advocate's Daughter
by Anthony Franze
The Advocate's Daughter by Anthony Franze is currently on tour with Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
A Washington, D.C. lawyer and a frequent major media commentator on the Supreme Court, Anthony Franze delivers a high-stakes story of family, power, loss and revenge set within the insular world of the highest court of our country.
Among Washington D.C. power players, everyone has secrets they desperately want to keep hidden, including Sean Serrat, a Supreme Court lawyer. Sean transformed his misspent youth into a model adulthood, and now has one of the most respected legal careers in the country. But just as he learns he’s on the short list to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, his daughter, Abby, a talented and dedicated law student, goes missing. Abby’s lifeless body is soon found in the library of the Supreme Court, and her boyfriend, Malik Montgomery, a law clerk at the high court, is immediately arrested. The ensuing media frenzy leads to allegations that Malik’s arrest was racially motivated, sparking a national controversy.
While the Serrat family works through their grief, Sean begins to suspect the authorities arrested the wrong person. Delving into the mysteries of his daughter’s last days, Sean stumbles over secrets within his own family as well as the lies of some of the most powerful people in the country. People who will stop at nothing to ensure that Sean never exposes the truth.
Excerpt
Please click here and use the "Look inside" feature on Amazon to read an excerpt.
Praise for the Book
"Smart, sophisticated, suspenseful, and written with real insider authenticity. A winner." ~ Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"[E]ngaging and riveting ... this no-holds-barred potboiler shines a light on Washington’s halls of power only to reveal the darkness lurking within them." ~ Providence Journal
"This fast-paced thriller will appeal to fans of Brad Meltzer, Joseph Finder, and Scott Turow." ~ Booklist
"The Advocate’s Daughter keeps twisting and turning right up until its shock of an ending. Long-buried secrets and shadowy agendas murderously collide - smack in the middle of a heated Supreme Court nomination clash. Anthony Franze evokes the inner workings and backstage machinations of this hidden world with deftness and verisimilitude. Read and marvel." ~ Gregg Hurwitz, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan X
"[Franze] gives readers an inside peek at the world of the Supreme Court, and tossing in an intriguing mystery only adds to the thrills ... Legal thriller fans should definitely find this appealing." ~ Library Journal
Guest Post by the Author
Lawyers Writing Fiction—In Search of "Why?"
As a lawyer who writes thrillers, I often get asked, "Why do so many lawyers write novels?" It’s a fair question. There’s certainly no shortage of us. Off the top of my head I can name dozens of lawyer-authors. Many of them are friends of mine. And yet, I’ve never felt like I have an adequate answer to the question. Whenever I try to articulate why I write, it sounds cliché or pretentious. So I dug a little deeper.
Could it be as simple as a big ego? A recent article in the Washingtonian speculated that attorneys write because we envision ourselves as "Renaissance men and women, like the humanist overachievers who, centuries ago, laid down the legal precedents they revere." Hmm. While there’s no shortage of ego in the law business, I don’t think it’s that. Writing a book usually takes at least a year. And getting published is hard. Really hard. There are a lot faster and easier ways to stroke one’s ego. Just spend five minutes on Facebook and you’ll see.
Does the answer lie in history and our forebearer lawyer-scribes? Otto Penzler, one of today’s leading authorities on crime fiction, said that in the 1800s members of the bar wrote to enhance their reputations and attract clients. "It was common practice for lawyers to use their own cases as the basis for lurid 'true crime' fiction, embellishing where needed to bring excitement to a case and, not coincidentally, enhance the perception of them as brilliant lawyers and clever detectives." Even a young attorney named Abraham Lincoln penned a tale. It may have worked for Honest Abe, but I can’t say I’ve landed any big cases or legal acclaim because of my books.
So maybe it’s the legal training we receive? Is there something there that drives us to write? One lawyer-writer suggests that the law "drummed discipline into my writing. Think obsessive, idiosyncratic research, frequently footnoted fiction (just in case you wanted to check my authorities) and killer, impossible deadlines." Another prominent attorney-author alternatively linked the process of creating fiction to the Socratic Method of teaching used in law schools: "That process, which virtually every law student despises, gets us to begin thinking about the 'what ifs'."
True enough, I wouldn’t have finished The Advocate’s Daughter without the discipline I’ve learned as a lawyer. When you have client or court deadlines, you can’t wait for "inspiration" to write, you just need to get it done. It’s a discipline that translates well to fiction. And I suppose living in fear of being called on for those dreaded what-if questions in law school, or preparing for the what-ifs from judges in appellate oral arguments, might have gotten my creative juices flowing. But none of this fully explains why I, or anyone else, would take that unusual step of sitting at a keyboard in an empty room and making up a tale. After all, lawyers are supposed to present the truth, "the facts". Perhaps, as some have speculated, it’s because "storytelling is at the heart of a lawyer’s trade ... A case, in fact, is a battle between stories." And fiction gives us the ability to control those facts and tell the story the way we want it told.
I could do this all day. Researching the question, examining the various theories. In the end, the answer for me is probably no different than for non-lawyer authors. We do it for the same reason an actor takes the stage. Or a musician hits the road. Or a painter take that first stroke on the canvass.
Because we love it.
About the Author
Anthony Franze has garnered national praise for his work as a lawyer in the Appellate and Supreme Court practice of a major Washington D.C. law firm. The New York Times, Washington Post, and other prominent news outlets have quoted or cited Franze concerning the Supreme Court, and he has been a commentator on high-court issues for The New Republic, Bloomberg, and National Law Journal. He lives in the Washington D.C. area with his family.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win one of two ebook copies of The Advocate's Daughter by Anthony Franze (US only).
Plus, enter the Goodreads giveaway for a chance to win one of 25 audiobook CDs of The Advocate's Daughter by Anthony Franze (US only).
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