The Advocate's Daughter

January 18, 2016
Washington, D.C., attorney Sean Serrat, the hero of this gripping if improbable legal thriller from Franze (The Last Justice), has recently entered private practice after a distinguished career representing the federal government before the Supreme Court. With Sean’s name on the president’s shortlist for filling a vacancy in the high court, he faces the possibility of a long-buried secret resurfacing—30 years earlier, while serving with the U.S. Army in Japan, he helped conceal the senseless murder of a Japanese shopkeeper. In the D.C. subway, a stranger bumps into him and mutters, “They know, Sean.” Then Sean’s law student daughter, Abby, is found murdered in the Supreme Court library. Though the police quickly identify a suspect in the crime, Sean is compelled to do his own digging. The transformation of his family into sleuths strains credibility—especially when his wife whips out a metal lock-pick to break into a room. Cartoonish characters don’t help the over-the-top story line, but fans of Brad Melzer should be satisfied. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency.

Franze's first fiction foray centers around a potential Supreme Court nominee whose secret involvement in a murder as a young teenager returns to haunt him. Thirty years ago, Sean Serrat was the commanding general's son at the U.S. military base in Misawa, Japan, when he and two other boys were involved in the killing of a Japanese storekeeper. After Kenny knifed the man, he swore friends Sean and Juan to secrecy. Years later, Sean's a noted attorney with a family of his own, and his name is being bandied about as a possible Supreme Court nominee. While Sean's professional life is heating up, so is his personal one, but in a worrisome way. Sean and his wife, Emily, have been unable to get in contact with their daughter, Abby, a law student. Sean missed the call Abby made to him on the day she disappeared, and his efforts to find her have been futile. Finally, Sean enlists an FBI agent neighbor in the search, and together, they discover Abby's body. After her boyfriend is arrested and charged with her murder, Sean confronts a drug dealer who may or may not have something to do with Abby's death. When things go even more sideways, Sean finds himself and his young son, Ryan, constructing alibis to cover their involvement in another crime. Soon, it's clear to Sean that the events of that long-ago night in Japan may be coming back to haunt him. Franze's story isn't rocket science: there's no deliciously complicated, twisty-turny plot, but that's OK. Despite his penchant for cliches--a cop vomiting at the sight of a dead body; the careful political correctness adopted by Abby and Sean; and characters who always seem to make the dumbest possible choices--this is a nifty little read. Readers won't linger over the last page like it's a good scotch, but Franze's freshman effort is a painless way to pass the time. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2016

Sean Serrat has presented many cases to the Supreme Court and is on the short list to be the next justice. An event when he was a teenager resulted in a cover-up, but Sean has since turned his life around. Now that his name is about to go through the wringer for confirmation, the tragic day from his past just might be revealed. Sean's law student daughter is found murdered in the high court's library, and her boyfriend, a law clerk, is accused of the crime. Racial tensions and corruption at the highest levels of government are only a part of the story as Sean risks his family and career to get to the truth. VERDICT Franze's second novel (after The Last Justice) gives readers an inside peek at the world of the Supreme Court, and tossing in an intriguing mystery only adds to the thrills. The story could have easily felt cliche or rote, but Franze knows the world of his characters. Sean comes off especially strong as things around him begin to crumble. Legal thriller fans should definitely find this appealing.--Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2016
It can't be a coincidence that Sean Serrat's daughter is murdered just as he makes the short-list to replace a retiring Supreme Court justice. A law-school research assistant, Abby had turned up long-buried information about all of the candidates, including her father. Shortly after finding Abby's body shoved in the stacks of the Supreme Court library, police arrest her African American boyfriend, a law clerk for the Court. Worrying that arresting the wrong man could leave his family in danger from the real killer, Serrat looks more closely at his daughter's last days and learns she may have been having an affair with a highly placed Washingtonian. He also discovers that his teenage son was in trouble with a drug dealer and could face serious consequences. Franze (The Last Justice, 2012) doesn't minimize the impact of a child's death on the whole family, dramatizing grief, anger, and a fierce protective instinct. This fast-paced thriller will appeal to fans of Brad Meltzer, Joseph Finder, and Scott Turow.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

April 25, 2016
This domestic thriller, set in the nation’s capital, follows the travails of D.C. lawyer Sean Serrat, who’s been harboring a dark secret from his youth. Thirty years before, in Japan, he’d stood by while another 14-year-old boy murdered a shopkeeper. With Sean’s name on the president’s shortlist for filling a vacancy in the high court, he faces the possibility of his long-buried secret surfacing. Worse yet, his beloved law student daughter, Abby, is found murdered in the library of the top court. The police arrest her boyfriend, Malik Montgomery, but Sean suspects he’s been framed. Actor Petkoff alters his voice to present a frantic, determined Sean, an excited, indignant Malik, a tough-talking Supreme Court police chief named Martinez, and over a dozen others, including the audibly sneering killer of that shopkeeper from the past, who reemerges with dreams of blackmail. These interpretations add a needed depth to characters who seem to have been written mainly to serve the plot. Petkoff anchors the story by keeping an appropriate pace and underlining the more highly charged sequences with an effectively dramatic tightening of his voice. A Minotaur hardcover.