Scott Douglas Gerber

The Art of the Law: A Novel: (Softcover: $20, 276pp, 6X9”: ISBN: 978-1-68114-448-1; Hardcover with flaps: $35: ISBN: 978-1-68114-449-8; EBook: $2.99: ISBN: 978-1-68114-450-4; LCCN: 2018907299; Release: October 15, 2018; Fiction—Thrillers—Legal; Purchase on Amazon or Barnes & Noble): Nevin Montgomery, a young lawyer with a prestigious Boston law firm, is dispatched to the Cape Cod compound of Andrew Windsor, the most acclaimed artist in America, to update Windsor’s will. Nevin arrives to the news that a woman who had secretly modeled for Windsor for decades has been found dead. Nevin, who is battling a hidden drug addiction, is asked to remain at the Windsor compound to complete his assignment because the health of his law firm’s most famous client is deteriorating rapidly. Nevin is introduced to the secretive art world, and he becomes smitten along the way with Catina Cruz, a beautiful young Portuguese-American woman he meets at the compound. Nevin eventually learns that Catina models for James Windsor, Andrew Windsor’s son. James is a painter in his own right, albeit not nearly of the stature of his father. When Andrew Windsor finally dies, a will contest ensues. At Andrew’s request, Nevin had cut Andrew’s wife and son out of the will and they challenge the will in court. Nevin is instructed by his law firm to defend the will, but he has some further investigating to do before he can: investigating that reveals more than he ever wanted to know about the woman he has come to love… and about himself.

“The Art of the Law is a page-turning murder mystery and legal thriller that rises above the genre’s conventions to also be a deft exploration of class-struggles, family and redemption. I was hooked from the first page, and still thinking about what I’d read when I finished the last.” —Adam Mitzner, author of Never Goodbye

“In The Art of the Law, author Scott Douglas Gerber has come up with a legal thriller that truly is… a thriller, a will contest that proves to be an extraordinary contest of… wills, flawed ones at that.” —Ronald S. Barak, author of The Puppet Master and The Amendment Killer, Brooks/Lotello thrillers

“The Art of the Law is that unusual combination of a page-turner and an accurate picture of what lawyers do in real life. Scott Douglas Gerber has the experience to walk you straight into the world of a death-watch estate planner who faces an explosive will contest at the same time that he’s trying to keep from losing everything that matters to him.” —David L. Crump, John B. Neibel Professor of Law, The University of Houston Law Center, and author of The Emerald Rose: A Courtroom Novel

Fox interview with Dr. Scott Gerber about the legal murder mystery (October 2018)

Scott Douglas Gerber is a law professor at Ohio Northern University and an associated scholar at Brown University’s Political Theory Project. His eight previous books include, most recently, Mr. Justice: A Novel.