The Best People
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Published by: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Release Date: October 8, 2019
Pages: 432
ISBN13: 978-1626346550
ASIN: B07XYH8Y5N
A Tale of Trials and Errors
Synopsis
Paddy Moran, a former cop from Brooklyn, is a newly licensed attorney in Houston with dreams and aspirations to make it big. He survives early rough bumps and ethical challenges. Then, through networking, he lands two high-profile clients. With his brash moxie and brilliant legal strategy, he gets outstanding outcomes that put him on the success trajectory to the upper echelons of the city's divorce bar. But, faced with difficult choices in high-stakes litigation, will he balance his thirst for recognition and respect with his sense of right and wrong?
The Best People also follows Pilar Galt, a sensuous, intelligent single mother from the Houston barrios, for whom a temp assignment evolves into a relationship with the richest man in town. Her path intersects with Paddy's and eventually converges during a pivotal time in her life when she must overcome self-destructive tendencies to survive.
A legal drama and social satire set after Enron and before the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, The Best People portrays a Houston as it is, a glitzy meritocracy populated with larger-than-life characters. It is the landscape where the country-club and café-society sets clash amidst clever legal maneuvering, big law firm politics, a Ponzi scheme and judicial corruption.
Praise
Winner of Readers' Favorite 5 Stars
“Marc Grossberg has the experience and the smarts to make Houston come alive on the page. The Best People will even take lifelong Houstonians to places they’ve never been. As they say in Houston, if it ain’t true, it oughta be.”
—Mimi Swartz, executive editor of Texas Monthly, two-time National Magazine Award winner, author of Ticker, New York Times contributing op-ed writer
“Not in many years has Houston been so vivid a character in a novel about third-coast justice. The high stakes
conflict of money and power are anything but a backdrop…through the steamy bayous, bedrooms, and
courtrooms of the biggest small town in Texas.”
—Kim Ogg, Harris County District Attorney
“I fell in love with Paddy as he was transformed from a rough and ready New York cop into a suave Houston socialite and followed him though his triumphs and tribulations. Pilar is another memorable character who’s beauty and strength are marvelously portrayed. The Best People is a fast-paced, well-written story and I could not put the book down.”
—Bapsi Sidhwa author of best selling novels including Cracking India (also published as Ice Candy Man and made into the acclaimed film "Earth")
“It’s a real lawyer story. A real Houston story. A really great story well told. Grossberg nailed it!”
—Stephen D. Susman founding partner of Susman Godfrey and internationally known trial lawyer
"A realistic and entertaining read about Paddy Moran a young personal injury and divorce lawyer who learns his trade in Houston and blunders into some shady stuff. As his dreams get bigger, his crimes grow darker. Attorney Marc Grossberg knows his way around the courtroom and his intricate plot is sure to surprise. The Best People is also a paean to Houston. 'This may be the fourth largest city in the United States but everyone knows everyone here. It’s a bad place to fall,' Grossberg writes. Amen."
—Andrea White
"More than 30 years ago Tom Wolfe published Bonfire of the Vanities, a magnificent satire of the chicanery of the rich and poor in New Year City. Marc Grossberg has brought a similar acumen to his home city of Houston, Texas. He is a wonderful raconteur and a master of the intricate plot.
Grossberg is superb in his understanding of the legal process and its temptations. I rarely have read a novel with such insights into how the legal system works—or sometimes doesn’t work."
Mark Yudof the former Dean of the Texas Law School, former Chancellor of the University of Texas System
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Excerpt