Billy Strobe
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
MEET BILLY STROBE - a lawyer and an ex-con, a man who believes in the law but always seems to be on the wrong side of it - in this "powerful [and] satisfying” (Publishers Weekly) suspense novel from the bestselling author of The Alternate. You are likely never to forget him.
Ambition and intelligence carry Billy Strobe to the top of his law school class and into a stock market scam gone south. And after a stint at a high-security prison, he finally takes on the fight of his life: clearing the names of the two men he respects most. One is a soft-spoken lifer he befriended in jail, and the other his Billy's father, the best criminal defense lawyer in Oklahoma until alcoholism, allegations of fraud, and a suicide on the eve of his imprisonment ended his life. But things are not as they seem, and Billy's dual quest for justice will lead him into high-level conspiracies and vicious murders, ultimately forcing him to choose between loyalty and protecting a woman he has come to love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Full of twists and turns, wit and well-drawn characters, Martel's fourth novel (after 1999's The Alternate) manages to transcend pig jokes and Okie humor to present a realistic portrait of a young man coming to grips with the truth about his father and himself. "Mr. Billy Nobody from Enid, Oklahoma," aka Billy Strobe, is two-thirds through UCLA Law School when all hell breaks loose. In a misguided effort to make some fast cash, he engages in illegal insider trading with a frat rat "Billionaire Boys Club II" and ends up doing hard time at Soledad Prison. He has already had cause to ponder the question of justice his father, Joe Strobe, an alcoholic lawyer, killed himself after being found guilty of forgery and bribery when Strobe was just a child. In prison, Strobe strives for fair treatment for all, and drives himself to finish his degree via correspondence course. Once awarded his law degree, he devotes himself to proving the innocence of a fellow inmate, Darryl Orton, who was wrongfully convicted of murder. Becoming the poster boy of second chances, Strobe lands on his feet in a cushy job whose strategic location will enable him to find the answer to the searing question that has haunted him all his life. The powerful prison sequences have the ring of authenticity, as do the courtroom and office scenes, attesting to Martel's professional expertise (he is one of the nation's top ten trial lawyers, according to the National Law Journal). This satisfying summer legal sizzler should assure Martel the growing readership he deserves.
