The Tenth Justice - Hardcover

Meltzer, Brad

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340658142 ISBN 13: 9780340658147

Publisher: Rob Weisbach, 1997

Synopsis

Fresh from Yale Law, Ben Addison is a new clerk for one of the Supreme Court's most respected justices. Along with his co-clerk Lisa, Ben represents the best of the fledgling legal community: sharp, perfectionistic, and painstakingly conscientious - but just as green. So when he inadvertently reveals the confidential outcome of an upcoming Court decision, and one of the parties to the case makes millions, Ben starts to sweat. Big time. Ben confides in Lisa and turns to his D.C. housemates for help. They offer their insiders' access - Nathan works at the State Department, Eric reports for a Washington daily, and Ober is an assistant to a leading senator - to help outsnake the blackmailer who holds Ben's once-golden future hostage. But it's not long before these inseparable pals discover how dangerous their misuse of power can be. And when a suspicious leak develops from within their own circle, Ben and his friends find themselves pitted against each other in a battle of shifting alliances and fierce deceptions that strike to the weaknesses in their friendships, threaten to ruin their careers - and ultimately may cost them their lives.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Landing a prestigious position as a Supreme Court clerk fresh out of Yale Law, Ben Addison is on the ultra-fast track to success—until he inadvertently shares a classified secret with the wrong listener. And now the anonymous blackmailer who made a killing with Ben's information is demanding more. Guilty of a criminal act, his golden future suddenly in jeopardy, Ben turns for help to his roommates—three close friends from childhood, each strategically placed near the seats of Washington power—and to his beautiful, whip-smart fellow clerk, Lisa Schulman.

But trust is a dangerous commodity in the nation's capital. And when lives, careers, and power are at stake, loyalties can shatter like glass . . . and betrayals can be lethal.

From Kirkus Reviews

Loose lips sink careers in this barn-burning first novel about a Supreme Court clerk who runs his mouth to a disastrously ill-chosen confidant. The Solicitor General is often called the Court's tenth justice, but don't tell that to the Court's 18 clerks, who are convinced the world revolves around them. So it's not surprising that Justice Mason Hollis's clerk Ben Addison, who knows the results of all the Court's decisions long before they're announced, mentions one of them to Rick Fagen, one of Hollis's old clerks. Alas, Rick is an imposter who never clerked for Hollis, but who's just wormed his way into Ben's confidence to get a tip that will allow him to make millions on the insider info. Worse, Rick seems to know everything about Ben's puny efforts to find out who he really is. Does he have an in with Ben's fellow-clerk Lisa Schulman? Or could he be getting the skinny from one of Ben's roommates--senatorial assistant William Oberman, State staffer Nathan Hollister, or Washington Herald reporter Eric Stroman--all of them childhood friends? Ben determines to nail Rick for his perfidy, but Rick simply responds by stepping up the pressure, demanding further tipoffs on sensitive cases and threatening to reveal Ben's involvement to the U.S. Marshals, who are already suspicious on account of a news story Eric filed on possible Court leaks. The more Rick's noose tightens, the more suspicious and shrill Ben grows about his old friends, whose fear of their bosses and parents and whose unfailingly juvenile dialogue (``Drop it'' and ``He's dead'' are Ben's stock responses to every new threat) suggest the Washington branch of St. Elmo's Fire. Meltzer spins a mean paranoid fantasy that'll have you turning pages in a frenzy to learn whether Ben and his equally strung-out buddies ever grow up. (Literary Guild super release; film rights to Fox 2000; author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rob Weisbach
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0340658142
• ISBN 13: 9780340658147
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 407