I really enjoyed this courtroom mystery. There was just as much time spent in the courtroom as out of it. The topic of the court case was a controversial subject, but the author did a good job explaining all sides of it. There were a handful of suspenseful moments that were not typical for a lawyer to experience following a case, but it kept me engaged and wanting to know the outcome. There was good backstory on not only the town but Elvis as well. I liked how it showed how a lawyer can still give good representation even if they do not have the same beliefs as their client. I thought I had some of the things Destiny wasn’t saying figured out, but I liked where the story went. I could read a series following this lawyer.

Title- The out of town lawyer
Rating-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love a good legal thriller. Im a sucker for a good court room storyline. This book covered a heavy controversial topic that is relevant in our political world today. The writing style is straight to point with short chapters, yet is also incredibly descriptive.

Synopsis-
The Quartz County, Alabama, district attorney has charged Destiny Grace Harper with murdering her unborn twins—a crime punishable by death. However, Alabama v. Harperisn’t your ordinary homicide case. Harper’s babies suffered from a rare disorder called TTTS, a fatal condition if left untreated, but correctable with minimally invasive surgery. Harper refused the surgery on religious grounds, resulting in the death of both babies, and now Harper is on trial.
Enter Elvis Henderson, a traveling criminal defense attorney who roams the country in his campervan. He receives assignments from Hazel Curnow, a once iconic trial lawyer turned recluse. When Curnow assigns Elvis the Harper case, he balks—Quartz County is his home turf. He left Alabama under a dark cloud at age eighteen and has no intention of returning.
When Elvis arrives to meet his paralegal, Margaret Booth, they immediately realize the case is fraught with complications: a desperate client whose story keeps shifting; a local populace who vociferously defend the rights of the unborn; a charismatic minister whose family lords over the town; a ruthless DA with political ambitions; an old-school judge who relishes handing down capital convictions; and a sheriff who might just want Elvis dead.

Thank you @netgally and @blackstonepublishing for this advanced copy.

WOW! This one will start a conversation! After reading only about 50%, I was so interested on where it was going and how it would end.
A good chunk of the book takes place in the courtroom. I feel like it was so well done. We got both sides of the argument and even within the legal jargon and bible references, there were explanations that were easy to follow and kept the scene moving. I loved getting E’s backstory and troubled past - seeing how it all correlated with his current self. I do think this could be an interesting read for a bookclub. I also wouldn’t mind seeing E and his crew again for another book 😁

📚Courtroom Battle
📚Colorful and Complex Characters
📚Suspense & Legal Thriller
📚Thought-Provoking

Half-way through the Out-of-Town Lawyer by Robert Rotstein, I thought to myself that this book would make Florida's Banned Books' list on Day 1 of publication. I'll have to check to see what happened. By the end of the book, a book that is very timely, well-written, and impressive, I'm not so sure for the reasons I thought when I was half-way through. But Florida doesn't seem to need much reason. After all the Bible is on the Banned Books' list.

The book opens with the arrival of a California lawyer named Elvis! who has been hired to defend a twenty-one year old woman accused of murdering her unborn babies. This happens in the state of Alabama, a state infamous for its cruelty to women. You have to admire an author willing to put contemporary issues in print and struggle with both sides of the issue. Along the way to the finish line, abortion, rape, churches who disdain doctors and encourage their constituents to pray for God to do what medicine might do, evolution vs the Bible, the consequences of hatred and resentment held on to for years. Rotstein doesn't leave much out.

Most of the book takes place in the courtroom. Elvis is up against a judge who throws out every juror who believes in a woman's right to choose even before voir dire. When he sees the jury that is chosen, he knows he has Mount Everest to climb to get his client acquitted. The prosecution is made up of two women, one extremely ambitious and pushes her luck any time she can and gets away with it with this particular judge. Her second is a younger woman, wiser and smarter, than Ms. Ambitious. Elvis has on his team, his second, Margaret who used to be a man, and the attorney who had just been fired when Elvis was hired. She is of Indian descent.

What a cast of characters. I've never read Rotstein before but I will follow him closely. This is a terrific book. I'm sure he had great fun with his cast of characters. The dialogue in court is believable, perfect tenor, and Elvis, being Elvis, manages some humour. . Though there is potentially a love interest, that's all it is. Rotstein doesn't distract from the trial with sex.
The ending does not disappoint.

I’ve read a fair number of legal thrillers throughout my many years. The good ones add a twist or two to an interesting story. The best are so riveting that I can’t put them down. And then there's Robert Rotstein’s The Out-of-Town Lawyer. It’s simply the best of the best. Hands down the best legal thriller I’ve read. The book combines a compelling story, filled with many twists, turns, and unexpected complications, unforgettable characters, and a host of themes, both age-old and contemporary. After young, unmarried, religious Destiny Grace fails to allow a seemingly simple surgical intervention to save the lives of her unborn twins and their resulting failure to live, she is arrested and charged with murder. Her lead attorney Elvis (E), a hometown product who abruptly left town more than twenty years before, and her preacher, who refuses to support her, are old-time football teammates. To say more would only provide spoilers.. The story is riveting and the characters are unforgettable. If you’re thinking about reading just one legal thriller this year, make it The Out-of-Town Lawyer. Library patrons should be eager to read it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is such a fantastic legal thriller full of suspense and drama!!! I could not put this down and found myself riveted by the story! Move over Grisham, there is a new legal thriller author on my shelf! How have I missed this author?

Elvis is a traveling lawyer who is tired of big law and travels around the country in his van and takes his assignments from his very prolific boss. This assignment is ripped from the headlines and from Elvi's past. He swore he would not return to his home town in Alabama but that is where he is headed.

Destiny Grace is a member of the Church of the Lord's Rapture and is accused of murdering her twin daughters. The identical babies had twin to twin transfusion syndrome and on the basis of religious grounds, Destiny Grace refused life saving medical care. Both babies died and the state of Alabama wants to send Destiny Grace to the death chamber for murder.

The characters in this story are richly developed, and the story is both intriguing and well written.
At its core, the argument for the case is an interesting question, and the story explores it in an intelligent and comprehensively satisfying way. That alone should grab the interest of readers...such a great legal thriller!

Highly Recommend!!!

Elvis Henderson receives the call while mindlessly driving his Ford Transit van through Texas, close to the Mexican border. He’s instructed to drive to the place he least wants to go: Quartz County, Northern Alabama. Elvis has history there, and it’s not good history. He left this place twenty-eight years ago and swore he’d never go back.

But he’s a restless lawyer who has stepped away from prestigious law firms to practice ‘small law,’ defending whoever his mysterious boss instructs him to. This time, it’s a woman charged with capital murder and facing a potential death penalty. The trial starts in just four and a half weeks, so time is very tight. But that doesn’t stop Elvis from being distracted by a billboard advertising a cabaret featuring fully nude women—there’s always time for that! Yes, Elvis is an interesting character: a man with a mysterious past, a driven professional passionate about his work, but also someone who enjoys some of the seedier aspects of life. The woman he’s been instructed to defend is Destiny Grace Harper, accused of murdering her twin babies. More accurately, her crime seems to be letting her unborn fetuses, who suffered from a rare condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (commonly referred to as TTTS), die as a result of denying them specialized laser surgery that might have saved them.

Destiny Grace had been a member of the Church of the Lord’s Rapture, run by an evangelical preacher named Jeremiah Tipple and his family. The church doesn’t allow parishioners to seek help from the medical profession. Their view is that prayers heal while doctors interfere. It’s quickly established that refusal of medical treatment on religious grounds will not be an effective defense; recent case law makes this quite clear. It’s hard to see how Elvis and the small team supporting him will be able to defend Destiny Grace. Everything seems stacked against them, including an idiosyncratic and mistake-prone judge, who seems hell-bent on supporting every wish of the prosecuting team while denying every request Elvis puts forward.

There’s a lot to take in here: a substantial cast of characters, a good deal of legal debate and argument, a plethora of Biblical quotes, and a backstory that explains why Elvis was so reluctant to return to this place. It takes a bit of concentration and patience, but past the halfway point, it really does develop into an attention-grabbing tale. Elvis is a compelling character, and he’s certainly the star attraction here. But there’s no end of colorful characters to enjoy and a compelling narrative that kept me on edge as we crept towards the story’s nail-biting climax.

The core argument here poses a really interesting conundrum, and it’s explored in an intelligent and comprehensively satisfying way. That alone should be enough to grab the interest of readers who enjoy a good legal thriller. But, augmented by the additional elements supplied here, what you have is not only a strong stand-alone story but one which, I hope, might prompt further adventures featuring Elvis and his crew. I, for one, would be happy to bump into this engaging legal practitioner at least one more time.

This book has EVERYTHING you could want in a legal thriller. It’s set in a small town in Alabama. It’s got a court case that will hit all kinds of hot topic buttons. It has a judge set to retire. It has a lawyer protagonist, Elvis Henderson, who lives in his campervan. Elvis has come back to his hometown to be the defense attorney. Elvis has secrets from when he lived in town before which makes him unpopular with the current sheriff and the pastor of the town’s mega church.

In this read, there is a perfect mix of the courtroom drama, legal procedures, and out of court action.

The State of Alabama vs Destiny Grace Harper is ready for you.

I love legal thrillers and when they keep me at the edge of my seat even better.
The Out-of-Town Lawyer is thought-provoking, gripping and intense, it will make you question everything, this book is perfect for a book club discussion.

Thank you Suzy Approved Book Tours and Blackstone Publishing for this tour invite.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝘁 -𝗢𝗳 -𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝘆𝗲𝗿 by Robert Rotstein released June 25, 2024.

Elvis returns to his hometown in the Deep South to defend Destiny of a charge of murdering her twins. Elvis left after high school and most people are not happy to see him back. When he arrives, he has long hair and a transgender paralegal, not a good way to make his re-entry into a town full of hell fire and brimstone, a town where the good old boys rule and a place where racism very much exists. Upon Elvis' return to town in his "hippy van" the first thing he does is visit his uncle to get a gun for his own defense. This book has the capability of becoming the legal thriller of the year for many readers. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC. This review is in my own words. Due to the subject matter and my own prejudices about the law/religion/mother's right I gave it three stars rather than the five it probably deserved.

An excellent legal suspense novel! Rotstein is a master at courtroom suspense and this flows well. I wanted to get to know the legal team a bit more than I did because they are such a fascinating mix of a team. A great setting and a very interesting issue made this a winner in my book. I would like to read more from this author and see what the team might tackle next. Well done!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I couldn't put it down and indeed did not want to put it down! More, please.

Well, the author has certainly written a book that will ruffle some feathers and cause some conversation (and consternation)!

When I began reading this, I really thought I was not going to like it – not because of the political nature, but because a couple of characters in the beginning have the tendency to lecture. It felt like the literary equivalent of a sledgehammer to the head.

Eventually, though, the author concentrates on the story and it’s very well done.

I do think the story is simply a vehicle to show how murky ANY political ideology becomes. The characters have complex reasoning behind everything they do, mixed with an absolute faith that their own view is correct. And the consequences? Devastating.

I’m not sure I adored how the book ended. It seemed an easy ending for a complicated story.

But in the end, I did very much enjoy the read.

• ARC via Publisher

“The courtroom scenes sizzle and plot twists abound in Robert Rotstein’s The Out-of-Town Lawyer, a smart and stylish legal thriller with sparkling dialogue and a fresh take on the conflict between government and personal autonomy. Is a young woman who refused a surgical procedure on religious grounds guilty of the murder of her unborn twins when the surgery could have saved their lives? The local populace of a small Alabama clamors for the death penalty. Then trial lawyer Elvis Henderson, with shoulder-length hair and a transexual paralegal, rolls into the burg in his camper van ready for battle. The closing courtroom sequences sparkle with fireworks reminiscent of Anatomy of a Murder and The Verdict, which is to say, electrifying, compelling, and authentic. Henderson is a unique new character in the world of legal thrillers, and I hope we’ll see more of him toting his briefcase into courtrooms from coast-to-coast.”
- Paul Levine, author of the "Jake Lassiter" series

This was a pleasant surprise as I hadn't come across this author before. It is a well written and well plotted legal thriller with excellently drawn characters and plenty of court room drama.

There is a good sense of time and place and the book feels authentic on terms of the locale in the deep south of the US.

The main character is a maverick with a fascinating backstory which is gently teased out as the story develops.

I really enjoyed this engrossing read.