coolreads# The Outsider @definitelybooks

The Outsider
Author: Alex Finlay
Publisher: Head Zeus
ISBN: 9781800246393

This is another of Alex Finlay's Supreme Court thrillers, where he writes as Anthony Franze, and provides an exciting insight on the working of the Supreme Court.

The story is about a young Supreme Court law clerk who is caught in the crosshairs of a serial killer and how he manages to stay alive working with the FBI as well as his childhood friends.

Ambitious Mexican-American Grayson 'Gray' Hernandez comes from a hard working, but impoverished family, living in the notorious Hamilton Heights district of Washington DC. 

Gray isn't happy with his condition as he's drowning in student debt from law school and the only job he's got is as a messenger in the Supreme Court. And Gray is forced to watch the best and the brightest – the elite group of lawyers who serve as the justices' law clerks – from the outside.

When Gray intervenes in a violent mugging taking place at the garage of the Supreme Court, he makes a powerful friend - the victim was the Chief Justice of the United States. Gray suddenly finds himself promoted from the role of messenger to become the newest law clerk at the Supreme Court where he gets to join the highbrow debates in the inner sanctum of the nation's highest court and upscale dinners with his new friends.

Meanwhile, there is something sinister going on in the capital that also involves the Supreme Court and the FBI is investigating the cases. So far there have been two murders and the agents find quill pens left at each crime scene by the killer and these pens are only given to advocates appearing before the Supreme Court.

The FBI agents, Emma Milstein and partner Scott Cartwright then approach Gray with unsettling news - that there's a killer within the ranks of the Supreme Court, and they want Gray to be their eyes and ears. But what Gray doesn't know is that the FBI soon set its sights on him as well.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Edgar Douglas whom Gray 'saved’ from the attack by a masked attacker at the court garage, has not only offered Gray a job as his law clerk but also his spare apartment and sports car for him to use.

Besides Gray, the Chief Justice also has four other law clerks, three guys and a beautiful female, Lauren Hart who has grabbed Gray’s interest. But he discovers later that he has to pay a heavy price for the relationship.

In a convoluted plot twist, Gray finds himself sucked into the killer’s maze of killings that are all related to a particular court case - the Whitlock case - involving the kidnapping and murder of Kimberley Whitlock as well as related kidnapping and the charges concerning Kimberley’s surviving siblings, John and Susan Whitlock by KenTanaka, who was released on technicality by a federal district court judge, who happened to be Douglas. And one of the murdered victims was Amanda Hill, who was Tanaka’s public defender at the time.

The FBI soon realise that the killings and attack on the Chief Justice are no coincidences but are related to the case. As the body count rises, Gray together with his childhood friends - Sam and Arturo - must navigate a world cloaked in secrecy, to uncover the truth before the murderer strikes again.

In a convoluted plot twist, Anthony Franze proves the adage that great lawyers make great storytellers. In The Outsider, he pulls off a remarkable feat by offering an adrenaline-fueled thriller that simultaneously puts a spotlight on Supreme Court history, precedent, and procedure in an exciting way.