Praise for Moral Defense
An Amazon Best Book of the Month: Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense Category
“Moral Defense by former Los Angeles prosecutor Marcia Clark has it all: a hard-charging lawyer heroine, tough-as-nails cops, realistic, yet somehow lovable ‘bad guys,’ as well as fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants pacing and page-turning twists.” —Associated Press
“In Clark’s outstanding sequel to Blood Defense…[She] deepens her already fascinating lead, while adeptly juggling several subplots.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“This second in the Brinkman series (after Blood Defense, 2016) is a nonstop ride marked by legal and moral gray areas, with a cliff-hanger epilogue. Another Clark legal thriller that’s hard to put down.” —Booklist
“A murdered family leaves only one survivor in this second roller-coaster case for Los Angeles attorney Samantha Brinkman…[The case] builds to a rare intensity.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Clark’s formidable experience lends itself to this exhilarating novel.” —RT Book Reviews
“Riveting and suspenseful…” —CrimeSpree Magazine
“It’s a complex, tightly woven plot, and as is in the case with all of Clark’s novels, the page-turning journey—through sensitive and controversial issues—to the surprise ending is not without considerable twists and turns…” —The Big Thrill
“…you’ll be thrilled with [Marcia Clark’s] second Samantha Brinkman mystery, Moral Defense, in which your assumptions as to whodunit will be wrong. This book has a complicated moral compass and an ending you don’t see coming.” —Elle Magazine
Praise for Blood Defense
“Former L.A. prosecutor Clark kicks off a promising new series with this top-notch whodunit…Clark sprinkles jaw-dropping surprises throughout and impressively pulls off a shocker that lesser writers can only envy.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“On the heels of FX’s blockbuster television series, American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson…Simpson prosecutor–turned–author Clark…launches a new legal thriller series. Unlike in her well-received Rachel Knight books, which featured an L.A. prosecutor, Clark’s latest calls on her earlier career as a criminal defense attorney to fashion protagonist Samantha Brinkman. VERDICT: Clark’s deft handling of her characters through a multilevel maze of conflicts delivers an exhilarating read.” —Library Journal
“Clark, who served as a prosecutor for the trial of O. J. Simpson, clearly knows this world well. She has the most fun when she’s showing readers the world of celebrity trials, from the media circus, the courthouse crowds, the crazies, and the police to the inner workings of the trial itself. You’ll push yourself to finish the final pages just to keep pace with the defense team’s discoveries.” —Associated Press
“Once again, Marcia Clark has reinvented herself—and the results are stellar. Her knowledge of the criminal justice system is unrivaled, as is her understanding of how the media influences public opinion of high profile trials—and the actions of those involved. But the real magic of Clark’s writing is her dynamic, richly textured characters and the visceral, often gritty settings they frequent.” —Hartford Examiner
★ 09/12/2016
In Clark’s outstanding sequel to Blood Defense, Samantha Brinkman, an L.A. defense attorney, agrees to represent 15-year-old Cassie Sonnenberg, whose father and brother were fatally stabbed in their home by an assailant who also left Cassie’s mother at death’s door. When Samantha interviews Cassie, the girl says that she initially hid under her bed and thus escaped the killer’s notice. She got only a brief glimpse of the fleeing culprit, who appeared to be a skinhead. Since Cassie’s mother, Paula, a city councilwoman, recently received death threats for successfully advocating passage of a strict new law targeting gangs, it seems plausible that a gang member was behind the bloody mayhem. But even as Samantha tries to protect Cassie’s interests, she must deal with the life-threatening consequences of prior decisions she made on other cases in furtherance of her private code of justice. Clark deepens her already fascinating lead, while adeptly juggling several subplots. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Nov.)
2016-08-22
A murdered family leaves only one survivor in this second roller-coaster case for Los Angeles attorney Samantha Brinkman.Not content with stabbing high school senior Abel Sonnenberg to death, or maybe just surprised that a sudden case of food poisoning has sent his parents home early from their date night, someone attacks Stephen and Paula Sonnenberg as well, leaving him dead and her critically wounded. Detective Westin Emmons, of the Glendale Police, naturally takes a lively interest in Cassie Sonnenberg, the adopted 15-year-old daughter who somehow managed to survive this massacre, perhaps because she carried it out. Tiegan Donner, Cassie’s teacher and counselor, begs Sam to represent Cassie, who certainly needs someone in her corner, and Sam settles in to listen to the first of many stories Cassie will tell her, some of them backed up by hard evidence, others not so much. While this pot is boiling furiously, Clark cuts away repeatedly to two other cases: a request by Sam’s father, Dale Pearson, an LAPD cop she’s already defended on murder charges (Blood Defense, 2016), to look into Julio Valenzuela’s allegations that Dale’s fellow officer Kevin Hausch used excessive force in his arrest; and the ongoing saga of Ernesto Orozco and his son Arturo, who want Sam to identify the person who secretly arranged for Arturo’s brother, Ricardo, to get sent to a prison unit where rival gang members were certain to kill him—not knowing that the sneaky culprit this time was Sam herself. Cassie’s case, complicated by a disturbing echo of Sam’s own teenage years, builds to a rare intensity that’s undermined every time Clark (The Competition, 2014, etc.) drops it for one of Sam’s other two problems, one of which seems likely to hang over her head in the sequel. Teen angst, dueling conspirators, human smugglers, cops of every moral stripe, and a lawyer heroine whose behavior ranges from the naively credulous to the downright criminal. Whatever you read legal fiction for, it’s here, along with quite a bit of other stuff.
