Everything Is Jake: A T. R. Softly Detective Novel

by Jethro K. Lieberman

Overview

Meet intuitive & charming sleuth T. R. Softly, who must solve the case of a secret agency threatening to topple both the mafia & the US government—perfect for fans of Chris Hauty, David Baldacci, and Joseph Finder.

A federal plea deal in Manhattan goes off the rails when a mob boss inexplicably recants his testimony days after voluntarily confessing to a lifetime of crime, and immediately, an FBI agent involved with the case goes missing. To find out what happened, the Feds call in T. R. Softly, detective fiction’s newest and most intuitive sleuth. Softly’s search takes him to Washington, D.C., where the “oddest of the forty-odd presidents of the United States” is suddenly laying plans to evaporate the U.S. government, as assassination rumors percolate in dark corners. Co-opted into partnering with a secret government agency, Softly struggles to understand how many games are being played and by whom. Is he master of his fate or has he been the unwitting agent of friends and foe? A twisting, rollicking tale that enthralls readers until the last page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953103116
Publisher:	Three Rooms Press
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.11(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jethro K. Lieberman is the author, co-author, or editor of more than 30 books and has had a long and varied career in law, journalism, and legal education. His many books include The Litigious Society and The Enduring Constitution, both awarded the Silver Gavel, the American Bar Association’s top literary prize. He holds a B.A. from Yale, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia. Everything Is Jake is Lieberman’s solo fiction debut. He lives with his wife Jo Shifrin in Bethesda, Maryland.

Editorial Reviews

08/30/2021

Lieberman (The Aleph Solution as Webster Mews, with Sandor Frankel) makes his solo fiction debut with a lively, if at times over-the-top, series launch. Confusion reigns in courtrooms across the country as mobsters suddenly recant their testimony just days after publicly confessing to lives of crime. A federal attorney recruits a college friend, Washington, D.C., PI TR Softly, to get to the bottom of what’s going on. For Softly—who along with his lifelong friend Khaki Blumenthrace opened their first detective agency after foiling a bank robbery at the age of 12—the search quickly leads to a secret subsection of the FBI, where technology has been developed for swapping personalities between bodies as a form of mind control. Events take a complicated turn when Softly finds that Khaki is also part of the project. Meanwhile, threats of assassination loom as an arrogant, narcissistic American president announces on live TV his brainstorm for defunding most of the federal government. The various strands come together in a satisfying if overly complicated conclusion. Witty prose complements the clever plotting. Readers will eagerly await Softly’s return. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A whimsical tale of a secret plot to make seriously bad guys incriminate themselves. . . A broad, sweetly fantastical satire just perfect for readers in the mood.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Witty prose complement the clever plotting.” —Publishers Weekly

“Everything Is Jake gives us a new sleuth to follow: T.R. Softly, whose latest assignment takes him into a world of political intrigue that requires all his considerable talents to unwind. Smoothly written, with humor and insight, this smart book holds your attention to the very end.” —Annette Gordon Reed, Author, On Juneteenth; Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University

"Everything is Jake brilliantly immerses the reader in a suspenseful ride from beginning to end. It is a smart and entertaining read, and the perfect novel for our times, pointing to even more difficult civil liberties issues than we’ve yet experienced, in a future just being born. This is exactly the novel I would expect of Jethro Lieberman — an exceptional legal scholar and a masterful writer.” — Deborah Archer, president, American Civil Liberties Union

"This is a book for the multitudes. Dickens lovers will cherish this story—the crazy names, the jaundiced view of lawyers, the cases that go off the tracks. And so will readers of Mario Puzo—the dark plots, the psychotic families, the parricide in Jake that resonates with the fratricide of The Godfather. There is even food for fans of the bumbling detective Jacques Clouseau. An hilarious romp through a justice system gone haywire. It would be criminal not to read it.” —James D. Zirin, Former Southern District of New York Prosecutor, Author and Legal Analyst

“Everything is Jake is everything a great thriller is supposed to be: complex, ambitious, and chock full of surprises. Jethro K. Lieberman has fashioned a truly terrifying tale that picks up where the January 6 attack on the Capitol Building leaves off. His quirky hero, T. R. Softly (who is anything but soft), is a rare and refreshing new voice in the genre, as driven as he is determined. Everything is Jake informs as it entertains, grabbing us in its vise-like grip and not letting go until the very last page is turned.“ —Jon Land, USA Today Bestselling Author, Murder on the Metro

“An exuberant tale, wrapped in good-natured humor, and has something for almost any taste: missing persons, courtroom drama, coming of age, unbalanced politicians, romantic edges, even a dose of neuroscience, with a theatrical explosion in the White House that may seem wholly fanciful and yet eerily familiar, all in pursuit of secret agents working — literally — in the ‘deep state.’” —Sandor Frankel, Author, The Accidental Philanthropist

“Lieberman guides us expertly through his narrative in prose that rings clear and true. Driving his creation is pop neurology propelled by suspense, the whole cruising at elite altitude. This whodunit of a palimpsest will overwrite your brain leaving a remnant buzz of pleasure and delight.” —Stephen Spotte, Author, Animal Wrongs: A Novel

“What fun! Everything Is Jake is built around an ingenious conceit and keeps readers on their toes with a genre-hopping style that goes from legal drama to juvenile detective to adult detective to political thriller to romantic comedy while lacing the whole thing with doses of political satire. . . . Satisfying and sweetly amusing.” —Richard Patterson, Director, The Gentleman Tramp

“Lieberman's debut novel—a notable departure from his previous books on the American legal system—is an original, highly entertaining take on detective fiction and political intrigue, starring, among many memorable characters, the brilliant sleuth T. R. Softly. Written with flair, it will test the most ardent mystery buffs. ” —Robert Kimball, Musical Theater Historian; Author, Crisis and Compromise: The Rescue of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

“Fantastic. . . . There were times that I found myself doubting everything could be pulled together . . . but Lieberman masterfully ties up all loose ends creating a remarkably woven tale – perhaps the best new book I’ve read in . . . a decade? Longer? Highly recommend.” —Andrew Jason Cohen, Professor of Philosophy and Founding Director, Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Georgia State University

 

From the Publisher

2021-07-14
Prolific lawyer and retired law professor Lieberman’s first solo novel is a whimsical tale of a secret plot to make seriously bad guys incriminate themselves.

Throughout his long and storied criminal career, Romo Malbonum, the Deckled Don, has never had to answer any legal charges. But one day, FBI agent Dewey Sisal tells Assistant U.S. Attorney Mallory Greenstock, the Don approached him and said he wanted to confess in court to a litany of crimes. In order to ensure that everything’s aboveboard, Malbonum will be represented by the illustrious Jedidiah Cardsworth Tillinghast, one-time college roommate of the presiding judge, Horton Pickscreed, and the confession will be captured on video. The only condition is that the proceedings must be wrapped up by this coming Friday. Mallory rubs her eyes, asks a few skeptical questions, and agrees, and Malbonum appears on schedule and confesses for hours as Judge Pickscreed looks on in growing bewilderment. Weird? Absolutely. But not nearly as weird as the moment days later when Malbonum, now that he’s been duly recorded, sentenced, and imprisoned, maintains that the whole confession was a hoax because whoever made it wasn’t him, despite oodles of evidence that it was. Troubled and baffled, Mallory calls on her old acquaintance and consulting detective T.R. Softly to get to the bottom of the mystery, and within days, Softly has discovered that this entire spectacle has been a mere curtain raiser to a deep-laid plot against President Mark Malleycorn Pohtiss, an intemperate crackpot whose public pronouncements, reprinted at length, are so demented and fact-free that the FBI’s code name for him is Fruitcake.

A broad, sweetly fantastical satire just perfect for readers in the mood.

Kirkus Reviews