A number of years ago, there was a call from the MWA for a member anthology where the stories all had to feature lawyers. I’ve had fairly good luck with these books, so I decided to give it a go.
I did a lot of research, and I stumbled upon this trial in Wisconsin where a lot of the proceedings were available as audio files. I read up on the defendant and used his story as general inspiration for my tale. At the time I wrote “The Best Defense,” I don’t think a verdict had been rendered yet. Maybe it had. I can’t recall. My story didn’t depend on it, because in my story, very little happened in the court room. It focused primarily on the relationship between the defendant and his public defender. It had nothing to do with the real case at all: this was just the launching point for my fiction.
The story wasn’t accepted into the anthology (sad face), but sometime later I read about the Hofstra Law School/Mulholland Books Mystery Writing Competition, and my story fit the bill, so I entered it. Took third place out of over 130 submissions, much to my delight, because the judges were two lawyers and a law school graduate: author Alafair Burke (daughter of James Lee Burke), OJ Simpson prosecutor and author Marcia Clark, and thriller writer Lee Child, creator of Jack Reacher. The second and first place winners were a trial lawyer and a law professor, so I thought I must have done a decent job with the legal angle.
So, I’ve been hearing a lot about this Netflix documentary series, Making a Murderer and I finally had some spare time to watch the first episode or two. Imagine my surprise when I heard the name Steven Avery in the opening seconds. I know that name, I thought! This was the case that had been the inspiration for my story. I know a lot about this case…I thought. But I’m still only on episode two, so there may be a lot more to come out than what I got from simply researching the published accounts at the time.
I had a fairly good year reading. Here is my list of works finished, in order and including audiobooks:
- Sunshine on Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
- The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
- Archie in the Crosshairs by Robert Goldsborough
- Texas Vigilante by Bill Crider
- The Death House by Sarah Pinborough
- Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (audio)
- Finders Keepers by Stephen King
- Niceville by Carsten Stroud
- Ireland by Frank Delaney
- Elimination by Ed Gorman
- Tales from the Lake, edited by Joe Mynhardt
- The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl
- Gray Mountain by John Grisham
- Tipperary by Frank Delaney
- Tin Men by Christopher Golden
- Perdido by Peter Straub
- The Last Drive and Other Stories by Rex Stout
- Brothers by Ed Gorman and Richard Chizmar
- Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
- The Complete Crime Stories by James M. Cain
- Dry Bones by Craig Johnson
- Pale Gray for Guilt by John D. MacDonald
- Charlie Martz and Other Stories by Elmore Leonard
- Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami
- Last Words by Michael Koryta
- Drunken Fireworks by Stephen King (audio)
- Numero Zero by Umberto Eco
- The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley
- The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman
- Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
- The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald
- The Shining: Studies in the Horror Film edited by Danel Olson
- Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay
- Is Fat Bob Dead Yet? by Stephen Dobyns
- The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
- Dress Her in Indigo by John D. MacDonald
- Dexter is Dead by Jeff Lindsay
- The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton
- Zer0es by Chuck Wendig
- The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson
- The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald
- Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea by Frank Delaney
- A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald
- Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (Audio)
- Dead Ringers by Christopher Golden
- Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin
- The Crossing by Michael Connelly
- The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
- Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)
- Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
- The Log of the Snark by Charmian Kittredge London
- A Long December by Richard Chizmar
- Interior Darkness by Peter Straub
- The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
- The Scarlet Ruse by John D. MacDonald
- The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror by Joyce Carol Oates
- Hap and Leonard by Joe R. Lansdale
- The Last Interview by Ernest Hemingway
- The Turquoise Lament by John D. MacDonald
- The Opium-Eater by David Morrell
- Teaching the Dog to Read by Jonathan Carroll
- The Revolution Was Televised by Alan Sepinwall
- The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald
- You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
