CBS lawyer releases second legal thriller

By Mark Squibb

Conception Bay South resident Mitchell D. King has released his second novel, Dirty Little Secrets, a thriller about a lawyer and his wife that must face the secrets of their past or face dire consequences.

King is an active member of both the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador and an associate with Roebothan McKay Marshall, and his most recent novel, like his debut She Said, is inspired by legal thrillers by the likes of John Grisham, author of The Firm and The Pelican Brief, amongst many others.

“I think I’ve read every book Grisham’s published,” said King, although he’s the first to admit he’s no John Grisham.

Legal thrillers, such as those by Grisham and other authors such as Michael Connelly and Steve Martini, are a crime fiction sub-genre that focus on legal proceedings and courtroom drama. One could argue that the legal thriller begins once the guilty suspect is apprehended and sentenced to trial at the end of a murder mystery.

This book’s main character, David Hillier, hails from Conception Bay South, and much of the action takes place in locales familiar to local readers— Hillier’s wife for example, teaches at Villanova Junior High. King said localising his characters helps ground his fiction in reality.

Without spoiling any of the drama, King said the conflicts plaguing his central characters are human conflicts that readers will relate to, and that he draws on his own legal knowledge and experience while writing his fiction.

“A lot of what people see on television is sensational, and so the actual job is probably a little more boring than people might think,” said King. “Notwithstanding, the principles and some of the drama that comes from the everyday legal field definitely helps spur some of the ideas and interactions you see come up in the fiction.”

The book, published on July 5, is dedicated to his grandfather on his mother’s side, George Grandy, and grandmother on his father’s side, Jean King, both of whom are still us, while his first book was dedicated to his grandfather on his father’s side, Junior King, and grandmother on his mother’s side, Shirley Grandy, who had passed prior to publication.

Dirty Little Secrets has hit it off well with audiences so far, topping the July Bestseller List of Atlantic Books Today.

Both Dirty Little Secrets and She Said are available from Flanker Press. Both are intended for adult readers.