Jonnie Jacobs - Essay: "Lure of the Law"

INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

Interviews with Jonnie:
Interview with Jonnie from the newsletter of MWA, Northern California Chapter
A Conversation with Jonnie Jacobs about her Kate Austen Series

Articles by Jonnie:
Mystery Readers Journal, Fall 2008: "Murder and More By The Bay"
"Be Your Own Best Editor"

Mystery Readers Journal, Summer 2002: "Lure of the Law"

I've been told that coroners have an unofficial motto—"Our day begins when yours ends." Somewhat along the same line, it could be said that legal mysteries begin where traditional forms of the genre leave off. In the police procedural, the PI novel, and even the amateur sleuth story, the plot winds up when the crime is solved and the culprit arrested. But in real life, as we all know, that's not the end of it. A trial, or at least a trip through the legal system, must follow—and that's what determines the final outcome.

In most legal mysteries a suspect has been identified, if not arrested, early on in the story. It is the job of the attorney sleuth to discredit or explain away the evidence against her client. The focus isn't on solving a crime and finding the killer (although that's often part of it since the identified defendant is usually assumed to be innocent); it is also an exploration of the case against the defendant.

Like so many people, I am fascinated by the way evidence can support several different theories about what actually happened. (Just look at the popular interest in trials from Sam Sheppard to O.J. Simpson) And in light of recent use of DNA testing to overturn convictions, it's clear that what appears plausible to the police, and to a jury, may not, in fact, be true.

I write a series of legal mysteries featuring attorney Kali O'Brien. (I also write another non-legal series with amateur sleuth Kate Austen.) Since I am an attorney myself, I suppose the choice was a natural one. Because I have never practiced criminal law, however, it wasn't so much a matter of writing what I knew, as what interested me.

The first book in the series, Shadow of Doubt, finds Kali heading home to a small town in the sierra foothills for her father's funeral. When her childhood friend, Janine, is accused of murdering her husband, Kali steps in to help. As the evidence mounts, Kali is forced to question her assumptions about her friend's innocence. Indeed, this was one of the "germs" from which the story grew—how well do we really know another person?

The format of a legal mystery allowed me the chance to look at murder from two distinct perspectives—that of the police and of the defendant. I also had a chance to explore the complexities of both the victim and the accused.

In the second of the series, Evidence of Guilt, Kali has remained in the small town and is drawn in to helping an older attorney defend one of the town "bad boys" accused of murdering a woman and her young daughter. It was the defendant, Wes Harding, who first drew me to the story. He appeared, pretty much full-blown in my mind, and I wanted to know what was behind the cynical, sour, uncooperative facade. Again, the dual focus on the victim and the accused fuelled the story.

The most recent book in the series, Motion to Dismiss, takes place in the San Francisco Bay area, where Kali had originally practiced law. Grady Barrett, the husband of one of Kali's friends is accused first of rape, and then murder. Kali doesn't particularly like or trust the man, and she finds that her two roles—friend and attorney—are sometimes at odds. This book includes more courtroom scenes than the previous two. It's a challenge to make testimony, often dry and tedious in real life, engaging on the page. But when done well, it's one of the hallmarks of legal fiction, and one of the attractions for most readers of the genre.
Witness for the Defense, due out in the spring of 2001, revolves around a contested adoption and the murder of the birth father.

I enjoy the puzzle aspect of legal mysteries, but I'm also drawn to the notion of doubt and shifting perceptions. Something like the pictures we've all seen that appear to be a vase of flowers when looked at one way, the face of a woman when looked at another. With murder, there is, of course, a real killer, but the path to identifying that killer, and being reasonably certain about it, is often not so clear.