The Outsider

The hero of this implausible legal Cinderella story from Franze (The Advocate’s Daughter) is Grayson Hernandez, graduate of a fourth-rate law school who has managed only to find work as a mailroom clerk in the United States Supreme Court. Then, one day after his shift, Gray enters the court’s parking garage, where he interrupts an assault and saves the life of Chief Justice Edgar Douglas. As a reward, Douglas makes Gray one of his law clerks, a position in which Gray will be directly involved in drafting memos and opinions on the most pressing legal issues of the day. Meanwhile, dogged FBI special agent Emma Milstein suspects that the attack on Douglas is part of a horrific series of crimes that include the murders of a defense attorney and her family, a fatal fire at a movie theater, and the killing of a convenience store clerk, all committed on the fifth of the month. Predictably, Gray decides to do his own detecting and places his life at risk. Thin characters don’t make suspending disbelief any easier. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. (Mar.)