A Criminal Defense

Defense attorney and former DA Mick McFarland, the narrator of lawyer Myers’s impressive debut, takes on the case of a close law school friend, David Hanson, the general counsel of a family-owned Fortune 500 company. David has been arrested for pushing Jennifer Yamura, an up-and-coming Philadelphia reporter who just broke a major police corruption story, down the stairs to her basement, where she was found lying dead. An anonymous phone call alerted the police, who picked up David fleeing from the victim’s house. That it appears to be an open-and-shut case isn’t Mick’s only problem. Devin Walker, the prosecutor, is pursuing a conviction largely because he and Mick were archrivals and enemies back in Mick’s days as a DA. Glimpses of Mick’s puzzling and intense relationship with his ex-convict brother, as well as rifts in Mick’s marriage, provide counterpoint to the fascinating legal maneuvering in the courtroom. The gripping plot builds to an ending that’s a complete shocker. Agent: Cynthia Manson, Cynthia Manson Literary Agency. (Apr.)