The shortlist for the 2018 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has been announced by the University of Alabama and the American Bar Journal. From the 27 submitted entries the following books were chosen:
1.) Exposed by Lisa Scottoline;
2.) Proof by C.E. Tobisman;
and,
3.) Testimony by Scott Turow
What strikes me about the list that all of the titles consist of a single word. As lawyers often struggle with brevity I doubt they were chosen by lawyers.
I have not read any of the books on the
shortlist. I have read several of Turow’s books. Some I thought brilliant.
Others I considered average.
I had expected Turow’s book to be on the
shortlist. It has done well in sales since publication. As well, from the trio
of best know popular American legal fiction authors – Turow, John Grisham and
Michael Connelly – he was the only one not to have won the Prize. As winners
are no longer eligible it was a probability Turow would be on the shortlist
with his latest book.
It has been 14 years since I read Scottoline’s
book, Dead Ringer. I thought it a
good book but have not read more of her legal fiction.
I am not familiar with C.E. Tobisman. A quick
search disclosed that Cynthia E. Tobisman is an appellate lawyer with the
California law firm of Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland. She has been listed
in the Southern California Super Lawyers
as an appellate lawyer for the past two years. For her writing career she
states on her website that she is the “author of books, comics, screenplays and
anything else fun”.
The judging panel for 2018 as set out in the
University of Alabama press release is composed of:
They are: Dr. Hilary Green, Assistant Professor History in the
Department of Gender and Race Studies at the University of
Alabama; Jini Koh, Attorney and University of Alabama
School of Law Graduate; Tony Mauro, U.S. Supreme Court
correspondent for Law.com and The National Law Journal;
and Sent Jeter Naslund, Author, Co-founder and former
Program Director of the Spalding University MFA in Writing.
They are: Dr. Hilary Green, Assistant Professor History in the
Department of Gender and Race Studies at the University of
Alabama; Jini Koh, Attorney and University of Alabama
School of Law Graduate; Tony Mauro, U.S. Supreme Court
correspondent for Law.com and The National Law Journal;
and Sent Jeter Naslund, Author, Co-founder and former
Program Director of the Spalding University MFA in Writing.
As with the Award in recent years readers
of the ABA Journal will form a 5th
voter for the Award.
The Award will be presented again at
the Library of Congress during the National Book Festival.
Following my reading practice I plan to read
the shortlist and provide posts on each book and my thoughts on the winner.
Thanks for this, Bill. I'm not surprised, either, that Turow's on the short list. It'll be very interesting to see which one wins. I look forward to your posts on the novels as you read them.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. I wonder if it is an advantage or disadvantage for Ms. Tobisman to have only two books compared to the numerous books of the other two authors.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this list. I'm putting Scottline's book on library hold. I'll check out "Proof," and wait until I read a review of Turow's.
ReplyDeleteKathy D.: Thanks for the comment. You are a disciplined reader.
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