The Local

This book put me in mind of Steve Cavanagh's Eddie Flynn series, this was due to the main character being a lawyer who really wants to know the truth about his client and willing to expose them if they are guilty. This book was outstanding and I liked the fact that the main character made all the same decisions about the murderer as I did along the way. I truly could not put this book down, and devoured it as fast as I could. I hope that this is the first of a new series as I for one would love to read more about James and which way his career decides to go.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the style of writing, the pacing and the character development. It wasn't the most unpredictable book that I have read but I liked it more because of that.

A patent lawyer as hero is an interesting concept and I was intrigued as to how a thriller would be crafted from what at first thought would seem to be a dry topic, but thrills and twists abound. Joey Hartstone tells a gripping tale of small towns, divided loyalties and family ties. Fans of Steve Cavanagh will warm to James Euchre whilst appreciating the different direction the character has been taken. Hartstone makes the law understandable be it criminal or patent and I hope there is another outing planned for Jimmy and his associates.
Thanks to Pushkin Press and Netgalley for an enjoyable read in return for an unbiased review.

really enjoyable, bright and breezy legal thriller. Well written, punchy with great plotting and characterisation. I sped through this book which captured my interest from the start and never let go. Written in the first person, this was a real discovery. Highly recommended.

I absolutely loved reading The Local by Joey Hartsone.

James Euchre, aka Euch, is a successful patent trial lawyer in Marshall, East Texas. On the surface, life is good. James is very good at his job and makes a lot of money. Then his great friend and mentor is murdered and he finds himself changing lanes and becomes the first chair as a criminal defence lawyer, defending the man alleged to have murdered his friend and mentor.

Firstly, Marshall as a place fascinated me. It’s a small town in a remote part of Texas with a static population and not without its issues. Major US and international companies fly in to Marshall to try their intellectual property / patent cases due to the system in place for quick jury trials. Hartstone really made the patent litigation process in Marshall very easy to understand for the layperson, and he peppered it with real-life corporation cases. It piqued my interest to such an extent that I went on to read more newspaper articles about Marshall and the Federal Eastern District of Texas courts.

I enjoyed reading James’s journey from patent lawyer to criminal defence lawyer. I completely bought into the fact that he was driven to uncover what really happened to his friend and mentor.

I was kept guessing as to who the murderer was and was really surprised with the reveal.

I hope that there will be more James Euchre books to follow! Huge thanks to the publisher, Pushkin Press, and NetGalley for making this ARC available to me for a fair and honest review.