Just in time for summer reading: Robert Rotstein’s new legal thriller, Reckless Disregard, gets early rave reviews from book trade publications.
New York, NY (PRWEB) May 01, 2014 -- Robert Rotstein’s debut novel featuring lawyer Parker Stern, Corrupt Practices, was published last year to great critical acclaim.
"Bestselling authors such as Sue Grafton hailed Rotstein for coming up with "a fresh take on the legal thriller," and in a starred review, Booklist called Corrupt Practices, "a tautly constructed, fast-moving narrative with an appealing protagonist. . . . This promises to be a compelling series for legal-thriller fans. Get in at the start." The Washington Post celebrated Corrupt Practices “for showcasing the most dysfunctional law firm” they could ever expect to come across.
Now Rotstein’s new book, Reckless Disregard, to be released this June, is also drawing early rave reviews from book trade outlets including a starred review from Kirkus Reviews praising the novel for its “endless novelties, endless twists, endless complications, endless surprises in and out of the courtroom” and a starred review from Booklist calling Reckless Disregard “a tautly constructed, fast-moving narrative with an appealing protagonist…”
Reckless Disregard (Seventh Street Books; June 3, 2014; Trade Paperback; 978-1-61614-881-2; $15.95) finds former top-notch attorney Parker Stern taking on a dicey case for an elusive video game designer known to the world only by the name of “Poniard.” In Poniard’s blockbuster online video game, Abduction! a real-life movie mogul is charged with kidnapping and murdering a beautiful actress who disappeared in the 1980s. The mogul—William “the Conqueror” Bishop—has responded with a libel lawsuit. Now it’s up to Stern to defend the game designer in the suit. Except there is one major problem, nobody has ever met his client…not even Stern.
In Reckless Disregard Rotstein explores the lure of celebrity, the limits of the legal system, and the elusive assumptions that we make about the people and the reality around us. Asked why the law is such a popular topic with writers, Rotstein responds:
“The legal system provides ready-made elements just waiting for a writer to combine them into a story. Real-life lawsuits are already dramas. Because there are two sides, you automatically have conflict, essential for a good story. More than that, the justice system assumes that there’s a right side and a wrong side, raising questions of ethics and morality. And most lawsuits are fraught with ambiguity: What really happened when those two cars collided? Are those witnesses telling the truth? Are memories faulty? Why is that document missing from the file? Such ambiguity creates mystery. Finally, lawsuits often involve the powerful against the dispossessed, and what better story than the underdog against the bully? “
Rotstein has also worked on early video game cases and has extensive knowledge of video games in the realm of the law. Some key topics that he can discuss include:
• the legality of the use of celebrity names and images in video games
• exploring the definition of video game art and who is considered the artist
Rotstein is already working on the third Parker Stern novel, in which he takes on the defense of a longtime fugitive from justice for decade. In the process, Stern discovers long-hidden truths about his family's painful past. The novel is expected to be published in 2015.
About Robert Rotstein
Robert Rotstein is an entertainment attorney with over thirty years’ experience in the industry. Over the course of his career, Robert has handled lawsuits on behalf of Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Lionel Ritchie, John Sayles, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, James Cameron, and all the major motion picture studios, among others. He authored a law review article that explores the relationship between literary theory and copyright law, and has taught as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California. Robert is currently a partner in a major Los Angeles law firm, where he co-chairs the firm’s intellectual property department. Within the past year, he has successfully defended writer-director James Cameron and his company in a number of lawsuits involving the blockbuster motion picture Avatar.
About Seventh Street Books™
Seventh Street Books™, where fiction is a crime, is devoted to publishing quality mystery and thriller fiction. It is an imprint of Prometheus Books, an independent publisher of provocative and progressive nonfiction.
Launched in October 2012, Seventh Street Books™ debuted with a diverse lineup of crime fiction that included the mystery in Paris break-out hit The Bookseller: The First Hugo Marston Novel; the first of a critically-acclaimed police procedural trilogy set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, The Cold Cold Ground; the literary-noir mystery within a mystery Hammett Unwritten; a newly-blind psychiatrist as an “expert witness” in a murder trial in Dante’s Wood; and a new line of Carolyn Hart classics. Our first legal thriller—the compelling debut novel Corrupt Practices—was published in June 2013.
Seventh Street Books™ continues to develop favorite characters (such as Hugo Marston, Samuel Craddock, Eli Paxton, Mark Angelotti, and Mac McLellan) and discover and nurture new authors (including Mark Pryor, Robert Rotstein, Lynne Raimondo, and Terry Shames.)
The name Seventh Street Books™ pays homage to the trailblazing influence of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe published “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”–considered by many to be the first detective story and an inspiration to later mystery fiction—while living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site there is located in a preserved home once rented by the author on North Seventh Street.
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Robert Rotstein is available for interview. Please contact his publicist Elena Stokes at Wunderkind PR (elena(at)wunderkind-pr(dot)com).
Elena Stokes, Wunderkind PR, http://wunderkind-pr.com/, 917-887-0784, [email protected]
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