Pretty much what the title says. There are a lot of crime thrillers, but there are not a lot of authors and/or editors who understand the ins and outs of the US justice and legal systems.
“Minor” mess ups can throw me out of a novel entirely.
I forget exactly which book it was, but I read a Karin Slaughter thriller that kept referring to the main character as “being on probation” when it was obvious that it was parole. I even gave her the benefit of the doubt and said “she probably just thinks they are the same thing”, but later in the book, she made reference to someone else “on parole” who was obviously on probation.
And don’t get me started on any book with a courtroom scene. Courtrooms aren’t yelling and screaming and gasp-inducing mystery reveals. Understanding the duty to disclose and what would and wouldn’t constitute a mistrial makes most books’ courtroom scenes feel like a 13 year old wrote them.
I would also not mind non-US Justice and legal system ones, because I am pretty much completely ignorant of other countries’ laws, so it’ll be a lot easier for me to suspend disbelief.
by medicated_in_PHL
1 Comment
Agreed, sloppy legal details put me off a book so fast!! A few authors who I find get the US legal side right because they’ve lived it:
– Scott Turow is kind of the gold standard for courtroom realism, especially around procedure and disclosure.
– Michael Connelly is also very solid on how prosecutors, police, and defense actually interact, particularly in pretrial and investigation phases.
– Lisa Scottoline is another former attorney who generally avoids the probation/parole-type mistakes that pull you out of the story.