THE COMPLETE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE SERIES

In Stockwell’s legal opus, a young Seattle assistant prosecutor takes aim at the city’s broken Justice Department.

Ben Sullivan, born in Seattle and raised in Tacoma, Washington, is the son of a working-class family. In 1993, his older brother, Mike, a drug addict, is shot in the street when Ben is just 12 years old. Several years later, his parents deal with their grief by having another child, Lisa. It soon becomes apparent to Ben that, if he wants to get out of Tacoma, he will have to do away with his devotion to petty larceny and self-righteous vandalism and turn his attention to improving his academic performance. In his senior year, he successfully set his sights on the University of Washington law school. A couple of years after his graduation, turmoil in the Seattle Justice Department makes it possible for Ben to get his first job as a lawyer. It is here that he meets Maria Deloera, a line prosecutor from the Domestic Violence Unit. Maria, the daughter of Mexican farm workers, has her own intriguing backstory and a rebellious streak equal to Ben’s. On the opposite side of the legal spectrum, readers meet public defender Erin O’Connell, Harvard Law graduate and committed helper of the downtrodden. Ben, Maria, and Erin form a stormy romantic triangle that underlies Stockwell’s raunchy legal-eagle takedown of societal and institutional hypocrisy. While he is not the narrator, Ben addresses the readers directly throughout the novel; Stockwell effectively leverages his own background as a former prosecutor to supply Ben with compelling insights to share about the inner workings of the justice system. Unfortunately, these insights are often overshadowed by the unnecessarily abundant use of crass language (“I’m always like, ‘That’s a fuckin’ terrible lookin’ jury for the city.’ None of those little pea-brained, pubescent, Ivy-League twats ever laughed. Shit, I know they’re not clever”). Still, there is much to appreciate here, including the courtroom procedural material, the irreverent humor, the pointed social commentary, and the intriguing if not always likable protagonist.

A scathing critique of the judicial system and societal hypocrisy wrapped in a bawdy romp.