PW: In the acknowledgments of Billy Strobe, you thank someone for getting you deep inside Soledad prison and getting you out. Did you do some undercover investigation there?

JM: I did. I went in using the guise of a counselor to get into Soledad for six hours. It was the longest "month" of my life. I've never seen anything like the despair, hopelessness and desperation of the people I met in there—six murderers in for life who will never get out. Some of them have been in for 30 years or more, some are college educated and model prisoners, but no [California] governor will parole these people.

PW: Why did you choose to make these characters Okies?

JM: I think it's because I saw so much strength in the children of the Dust Bowl Okies and wanted to try to capture it in Billy, knowing what tests lay ahead of him. It takes incredible strength to retain your humanity in prison, not to become a "hard rock." For that matter, it's tough out of prison, too, for we no longer live in a world of romance and musical comedy, but in a world of rap and Lara Croft, of violence, cynicism and self-absorption. Or maybe John Steinbeck slept with my mother while he was writing The Grapes of Wrath? (laughs)

PW: What do you prefer practicing—law or writing?

JM: I was an active trial lawyer for 30 years, tried over 100 cases (with only four losses). I got really tired of the contentious nature of my work. Somewhere along the way, I figured out writing about it is a helluva lot easier than doing it.

PW: Many people distrust lawyers. Do you think this distrust is warranted?

JM: One of the ironies is that the ABA did a survey of people, and their number one reason for disliking lawyers is that they would do anything to win, and as a lawyer, I never had anyone come to me who didn't want me to do anything I could to win.

PW: Does it bother you to be compared to Grisham, Turow and other lawyers turned scribes? Do you think lawyers make competent writers?

JM: Law fiction should be accurate in the procedural aspect. Picasso said art is a lie that tells you a truth. I think that what he meant was that although art is by definition made up, it should communicate a truth, so the context of the setting should be accurately depicted in order to foster truth in the viewer or the reader. I'm honored to be compared to Turow, but I don't think most lawyers make competent writers. Too many still write like they're Latin professors. Most lawyers have a tendency to overwrite because they're so desperate to sway the judges (the readers), so they can't leave out the excessive verbiage. My answer just proved the point.

PW: Your career began in 1988 with Partners. Billy Strobe's your fourth book. What's next?

JM: I'm going to write another Billy Strobe book. It's going to be quite different from anything I've written. Billy's going traveling, and that's all I'd better say right now.

PW: There are a lot of pig jokes in Billy Strobe. Which is your favorite?

JM: When Darryl cautions Billy that you should never wrestle a pig in the mud because you just wind up dirty and the pig will enjoy it.

PW: Finally, you've consulted on some high-profile cases, including Menendez and Simpson. Do you think our justice system works?

JM: I like to paraphrase Winston Churchill: "Our justice system is the worst in the world except for all the others that have been tried."