From an award-winning author, a crime thriller with "some of the sharpest courtroom cut-and-thrust since Presumed Innocent" ( Kirkus Reviews).
The Maxwell brothers both became lawyers, following in their father's footsteps. But their father, Lawrence, had his career come to a screeching halt over two decades ago—when he was convicted of killing his wife.
Now, faced with evidence of stunning prosecutorial misconduct, a San Francisco judge has ordered a new trial for Lawrence. Soon after, a prison snitch and potential key witness turns up dead, and Lawrence's son, Leo, finds himself trying to defend his father against murder charges both old and new—and confronting the darkness at the center of his own life, as he struggles to do right by both the law and his blood.
From the author of Bear Is Broken, which won the Shamus Award and was a Kirkus Reviews best book of the year, this novel in the Leo Maxwell series is "a sharp-edged legal thriller with the deep emotional undertones of family drama and tragedy" ( New York Times-bestselling author Reed Farrel Coleman).
"Superlative . . . Smith is masterly in creating realistic courtroom scenes, including the subtleties of witness examination." — Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The line Maxwell family members walk between innocence and guilt becomes more blurred with every step and turn of the page." — Library Journal, starred review
Industry Reviews
“Lachlan Smith does a masterful turn in Fox Is Framed. A sharp-edged legal thriller with the deep emotional undertones of family drama and tragedy.”—Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot
“This book never took me where I expected it would. The story is smart, complex, and original . . . The characters got me hooked, the legal story got me to stay, and the originality of the telling stuck with me when I was finished.”—Mystery Scene
“The complex family dynamics that Smith explored in his earlier books only become more intriguing in his superlative third Leo Maxwell mystery . . . Smith is masterly in creating realistic courtroom scenes, including the subtleties of witness examination, and, even more impressively, enhances the trial with the human drama of the Smith family.”—Publishers Weekly (boxed and starred review)
“Engaging . . . Smith elegantly blends courtroom suspense and family misfortune without ever slipping into melodrama; the line Maxwell family members walk between innocence and guilt becomes more blurred with every step and turn of the page.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Some of the sharpest courtroom cut-and-thrust since Presumed Innocent.”—Kirkus Reviews
