The Substitution Order
“Truly thrilling . . . . The Substitution Order is not merely a good legal thriller; it’s a great one.”
- The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
Description
Kevin Moore, once a high-flying Virginia attorney, hits rock bottom after a tumultuous summer leaves him disbarred and separated from his wife. Short on cash and looking for work, he lands in the middle of nowhere with a job at SUBstitution, the world’s saddest sandwich shop. His closest confidants: a rambunctious rescue puppy and the twenty-year-old computer whiz manning the restaurant counter beside him.
Kevin’s determined to set his life right again, but the troubles keep coming, including a visit from a mysterious stranger who wanders into the shop armed with a threatening “invitation” to join a multimillion-dollar scam. Before long, Kevin will need every bit of his legal savvy just to stay out of prison.
In The Substitution Order, Martin Clark—hailed by Entertainment Weekly as “hands down our best legal-thriller writer”—takes readers on a remarkable tour of the law’s tricks and hidden trapdoors and delivers a wildly entertaining novel that will keep you guessing and rooting for its tenacious hero until the very last page.
The Substitution Order
“Truly thrilling . . . . The Substitution Order is not merely a good legal thriller; it’s a great one.”
- The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
Description
Kevin Moore, once a high-flying Virginia attorney, hits rock bottom after a tumultuous summer leaves him disbarred and separated from his wife. Short on cash and looking for work, he lands in the middle of nowhere with a job at SUBstitution, the world’s saddest sandwich shop. His closest confidants: a rambunctious rescue puppy and the twenty-year-old computer whiz manning the restaurant counter beside him.
Kevin’s determined to set his life right again, but the troubles keep coming, including a visit from a mysterious stranger who wanders into the shop armed with a threatening “invitation” to join a multimillion-dollar scam. Before long, Kevin will need every bit of his legal savvy just to stay out of prison.
In The Substitution Order, Martin Clark—hailed by Entertainment Weekly as “hands down our best legal-thriller writer”—takes readers on a remarkable tour of the law’s tricks and hidden trapdoors and delivers a wildly entertaining novel that will keep you guessing and rooting for its tenacious hero until the very last page.
The Jezebel Remedy
“Original, smart and breezily amusing . . . . and damned good.”
-Miami Herald
Description
Lisa and Joe Stone, married for twenty years and partners in their small Virginia law firm, handle routine, run-of-the-mill cases, including never-ending complaints from their cantankerous client Lettie VanSandt. When Lettie dies in a suspicious accident and unexpectedly leaves her entire estate to Joe, the Stones find themselves entangled in a corporate conspiracy that will require all their legal skills—not to mention some difficult ethical choices—for them to survive. Complicating matters, Lisa is desperately trying to shield Joe from a dreadful secret, a mistake that she would give anything to erase.
With a cast of perfectly drawn imperfect characters, an intricate tour of the legal system, and a remarkably entertaining plot alongside a no-holds-barred portrait of a marriage, The Jezebel Remedy is a legal drama in a class of its own.
The Jezebel Remedy
“Original, smart and breezily amusing . . . . and damned good.”
-Miami Herald
Description
Lisa and Joe Stone, married for twenty years and partners in their small Virginia law firm, handle routine, run-of-the-mill cases, including never-ending complaints from their cantankerous client Lettie VanSandt. When Lettie dies in a suspicious accident and unexpectedly leaves her entire estate to Joe, the Stones find themselves entangled in a corporate conspiracy that will require all their legal skills—not to mention some difficult ethical choices—for them to survive. Complicating matters, Lisa is desperately trying to shield Joe from a dreadful secret, a mistake that she would give anything to erase.
With a cast of perfectly drawn imperfect characters, an intricate tour of the legal system, and a remarkably entertaining plot alongside a no-holds-barred portrait of a marriage, The Jezebel Remedy is a legal drama in a class of its own.
The Legal Limit
"An engrossingly realized novel . . . . Elmore Leonard meets John Grisham, but smart and procedurally realistic, with a plot wound as tightly as a watch.”
- Los Angeles Times
Description
Gates Hunt is a compulsive felon, serving a stiff penitentiary sentence for selling cocaine. His brother, Mason, however, has escaped their bitter, impoverished upbringing to become the commonwealth’s attorney for their rural hometown in Virginia, where he enjoys a contented life with his wife and spitfire daughter. But Mason’s idyll is abruptly pierced by a wicked tragedy, and soon afterward trouble finds him again when he is forced to confront a brutal secret he and his brother had both sworn to take with them to the grave, a secret that threatens everyone and everything he holds dear.
Intricately plotted and relentlessly entertaining, The Legal Limit is an exploration of the judicial system’s roughest edges, as well as a gripping story of murder, family, and the difficult divide that sometimes separates genuine justice from the law.
The Legal Limit
"An engrossingly realized novel . . . . Elmore Leonard meets John Grisham, but smart and procedurally realistic, with a plot wound as tightly as a watch.”
- Los Angeles Times
Description
Gates Hunt is a compulsive felon, serving a stiff penitentiary sentence for selling cocaine. His brother, Mason, however, has escaped their bitter, impoverished upbringing to become the commonwealth’s attorney for their rural hometown in Virginia, where he enjoys a contented life with his wife and spitfire daughter. But Mason’s idyll is abruptly pierced by a wicked tragedy, and soon afterward trouble finds him again when he is forced to confront a brutal secret he and his brother had both sworn to take with them to the grave, a secret that threatens everyone and everything he holds dear.
Intricately plotted and relentlessly entertaining, The Legal Limit is an exploration of the judicial system’s roughest edges, as well as a gripping story of murder, family, and the difficult divide that sometimes separates genuine justice from the law.
Plain Heathen Mischief
"Plot twists and turns around thievery and insurance fraud set between Roanoke, Virginia, Las Vegas, and Missoula’s fly-fishing country remain outlandishly believable. To the end, Plain Heathen Mischief remains an unpredictably good ride.”
- San Francisco Chronicle
Description
Moments after finishing a six-month sentence in the Roanoke jail for a crime he might not have committed, Baptist minister Joel King is served some unwelcome papers. His wife wants a divorce, and the teenage vixen everyone believes he seduced is suing him for five million dollars.
Holding on to his faith with a white-knuckle grip, Joel accepts a ride out west with Edmund Brooks, a member of his former flock who has some Commandment-challenging ideas about helping Joel help himself. Plain Heathen Mischief ranges from the cross to the double cross, from Virginia to Las Vegas, from courtrooms to trout streams, as Martin Clark follows his Job-like hero through dubious choices and high-dollar insurance scams to a redemption no reader could possibly predict.
Plain Heathen Mischief
"Plot twists and turns around thievery and insurance fraud set between Roanoke, Virginia, Las Vegas, and Missoula’s fly-fishing country remain outlandishly believable. To the end, Plain Heathen Mischief remains an unpredictably good ride.”
- San Francisco Chronicle
Description
Moments after finishing a six-month sentence in the Roanoke jail for a crime he might not have committed, Baptist minister Joel King is served some unwelcome papers. His wife wants a divorce, and the teenage vixen everyone believes he seduced is suing him for five million dollars.
Holding on to his faith with a white-knuckle grip, Joel accepts a ride out west with Edmund Brooks, a member of his former flock who has some Commandment-challenging ideas about helping Joel help himself. Plain Heathen Mischief ranges from the cross to the double cross, from Virginia to Las Vegas, from courtrooms to trout streams, as Martin Clark follows his Job-like hero through dubious choices and high-dollar insurance scams to a redemption no reader could possibly predict.
The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living
"Clark delivers the goods. The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living is a guilty pleasure of an altogether different kind. Call it an illegal thriller.”
- The New York Times Book Review (2000 Notable Book)
Description
In this masterful debut, Martin Clark proves to be the heir apparent of great Southern raconteurs and the envy of more seasoned novelists as he takes us on a frantic tour of the modern south.
Hung over, beaten by the unforgiving sun, bitter at his estranged wife, and dreading the day’s docket of petty criminal cases, Judge Evers Wheeling is in need of something on the morning he’s accosted by Ruth Esther English. Ruth Esther’s strange story certainly is something, and Judge Wheeling finds himself in uncharted territory. Reluctantly agreeing to help Ruth Esther retrieve some stolen money, he recruits his pot-addled brother and a band of merry hangers-on for the big adventure. Raucous road trips, infidelity, suspected killers, winning Lotto tickets, drunken philosophical rants, and at least one naked woman tied to a road sign ensue in The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, one part legal thriller, one part murder mystery, and all parts all wild.
The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living
"Clark delivers the goods. The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living is a guilty pleasure of an altogether different kind. Call it an illegal thriller.”
- The New York Times Book Review (2000 Notable Book)
Description
In this masterful debut, Martin Clark proves to be the heir apparent of great Southern raconteurs and the envy of more seasoned novelists as he takes us on a frantic tour of the modern south.
Hung over, beaten by the unforgiving sun, bitter at his estranged wife, and dreading the day’s docket of petty criminal cases, Judge Evers Wheeling is in need of something on the morning he’s accosted by Ruth Esther English. Ruth Esther’s strange story certainly is something, and Judge Wheeling finds himself in uncharted territory. Reluctantly agreeing to help Ruth Esther retrieve some stolen money, he recruits his pot-addled brother and a band of merry hangers-on for the big adventure. Raucous road trips, infidelity, suspected killers, winning Lotto tickets, drunken philosophical rants, and at least one naked woman tied to a road sign ensue in The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, one part legal thriller, one part murder mystery, and all parts all wild.