Deadly Force: A Lizzie Scott Novel

by Jonathan Shapiro

Overview

Deadly Force takes place in US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Santa Ana branch office, a desert outpost where a handful of federal prosecutors are responsible for enforcing the federal law of the U.S. for an area that is larger than 14 states, and has a population of more than 5 million people. Here is Lizzie Scott, a classic western hero for the 21st century. Follow her as she untangles an excessive force case against a cop, all while balancing agency turf battles, secret grand jury proceedings, inter-office rivalries and on-the-make prosecutors. If she indicts the deputy, she faces death threats from the police, if she loses the case, a killer will go free and her career will be destroyed. It’s the ultimate insiders look into the nuts-and-bolts of a federal civil rights prosecution, with fascinating legal and moral issues. "The best legal thriller since Presumed Innocent. Deadly Force offers a thought-provoking insider's look at the justice system and the people who operate it. A gripping page turner, nobody writes the law or lawyers better than Jonathan Shapiro." —David E. Kelley, Emmy Award-winning writer/producer of The Blacklist, The Practice, Boston Legal, and Ally McBeal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634252751
Publisher:	Ankerwycke
Publication date:	04/07/2016
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Shapiro is the author of Liars, Lawyers, and the Art of Storytelling (9781627229265). Deadly Force is his first novel. He has spent the last 15 years writing and producing some of television’s most iconic shows, including The Practice and Boston Legal, and has received an Emmy, a Peabody, and multiple Humanitas Awards. He is currently a writer for NBC’s hit show The Blacklist and, along with Emmy-award winning David E. Kelley, one of the creators, writers, and executive producers of Trial, an Amazon legal thriller set to air in 2015. He is also Of Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis, Los Angeles, where he specializes in entertainment law litigation.

Editorial Reviews

01/18/2016
Assistant U.S. attorney Lizzie Scott, the heroine of Shapiro's promising fiction debut, the first in a trilogy, is a complicated woman with a past she would like to keep secret and an uncertain future. Her life takes a dramatic turn when FBI agent John Paul Jones asks her to investigate the killing of a young Hispanic man by a police officer on the force of a small Southern California town. Lizzie accepts the challenge, but as her ambitious colleague, Jack Horton, tells her, "Cop cases are career suicide." She soon finds herself surrounded by sleazy but canny defense lawyers, bad cops, worse cops, good FBI agents, cowardly FBI agents, religious zealots, and hipster coroners—not to mention a flaky childhood friend. The jury selection and trial sequences are particularly entertaining because Lizzie applies the strategies she uses in the boxing ring to her trial work. Shapiro (Lawyers, Liars, and the Art of Storytelling) was himself a federal prosecutor, as well as writer and producer of such iconic TV shows as Boston Legal and The Practice. Readers will look forward to Lizzie's further adventures. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly