In this “fast-paced, wickedly funny” legal thriller, a small-town lawyer’s case against a Los Angeles record label turns into a deadly media circus (Publishers Weekly).
Living in the Northern California town of Foolsgold, widowed lawyer Oliver Gulliver is headed for a midlife crisis. It doesn’t help that his eighteen-year-old daughter Elora has fallen in love with alcoholic former rock star C.C. Gilley. But then C.C. quits drinking and gets to work on a comeback album. Things actually seem to be looking up—until C.C.’s car is stolen, with his priceless demo tape inside.
In no time at all, another band is all over the radio with C.C.’s song, and Oliver finds himself in Los Angeles working the biggest case of his life—suing a billion-dollar record company for plagiarism. But even as Oliver discovers his talent for charming the public, he finds out how nasty the music industry can get. When the stakes skyrocket from plagiarism to murder, Oliver will have to try C.C.’s case like his life depends on it—because it does.
“Reeling off witty turns of phrase and uncanny plot twists, Deverell offers wonderfully sardonic takes on the worlds of music, law, Hollywood, Southern California and fatherhood--just for starters.” —Publishers Weekly
William Deverell’s first novel, Needles, won the $50,000 Seal Award, and, since then, he has published one work of non-fiction, Fatal Cruise, and ten further novels, including Trial of Passion, winner of the Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing and Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. Deverell created the popular CBC Television series Street Legal and recreated its characters in a novel by that title. He is a founding member and past-president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, a member of PEN Canada, the Screen Writers Guild, and has twice been chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada. He winters in Costa Rica and spends his summers on Pender Island in B.C.From the Hardcover edition.