Andy Hughes is an overworked, underpaid public defender who faces life and death decisions after catching the case of a lifetime in Martin Clark’s latest book, “The Plinko Bounce.”
Clark, a retired circuit court judge, will kick off his six-month book tour on September 12, with a book signing and celebration from 3:30-8 p.m. at the Patrick County Branch Library. The event will include catered bakery treats from Dragon’s Beard Farm, homemade sweets from Kimberley Redd, door-prize gift certificates from local businesses, and the first 75 people to buy the new book will get a free copy of “The Substitution Order.”
If the early reception to “The Plinko Bounce” is any indication, Clark’s newest book will be another bestseller – perhaps the biggest yet.
“The reception early has been the best I’ve had,” Clark said, and explained that while the book is set in Patrick and Henry counties and includes several familiar characters, it also represents somewhat of a departure from his other books.
For instance, the majority of his books are longer – about 340 pages.
“The Plinko Bounce,” which is nearly 300 pages, “is quicker. It’s leaner,” Clark said. “It is more character driven, and more plot driven than my last” book.
The plot is a byproduct of the nearly 30 years Clark served as a circuit court judge.
For the book to work, “you need a plot trick,” Clark said, and explained that like most books in the legal thriller genre, “you have some corruption. You have sort of an evil door behind the scenes” and “you have fraud. To use Bernie Mac’s term, ‘there’s some trickeration going on.’
“It struck me it would be interesting” to write about a situation where the system works as it should, “and all the lawyers do what they’re supposed to do. They’re good lawyers” and the case is well-presented, the judge does what he or she is supposed to do, and “the system works as it should, but the outcome does not follow, or track, the objective truth. In other words, you have this really good mechanism, but it misfires, and then what should we do,” Clark said.
“I know that of course everybody thinks these days, given sort of the backdrop of the world in which we live and all the turmoil, that the system is beaten down and corrupt and it doesn’t work,” Clark said.
However, “I’ve worked in the system for as a judge for almost three decades and I ran into two cases” in which “you had a jury getting sort of put in a straitjacket because the law didn’t allow them to hear all the evidence, and that made me think what an interesting fictional story that would be if you have someone who’s on trial and perhaps is guilty, but the jury is not able to hear because the judge does the right thing,” Clark said.
He recalled similar experiences “twice in my career. Once in Henry County case, when a confession … was lawyered out, and it should have been. It just was not a proper confession. Maybe that’s a technicality, but that’s the way the system works, so the confession is gone and then the evidence was suppressed.
“So basically, you’re trying to convict this defendant on circumstantial case … and so you watched this jury and everybody in the courtroom knows the defendant is guilty, including the defendant. The defendant has never said anything else,” Clark said. “But you watch as the jury does the right thing and they let him go, and they should have. I would have.”
Because that situation was a departure from the norm, Clark said it made a lasting impact, and while the plot in “The Plinko Bounce” is fictional, it is “a story that needed to be written. This story is about what happens in the courtroom and what happens after, and it’s pretty much that straightforward.”
For 17 years, Hughes “has been underpaid to look after the poor, the addicted, and the unfortunate souls who constantly cycle through the courts, charged with petty crimes,” the book jacket states.
“And then you catch this case of a lifetime,” Clark said.
When all is said and done, and despite his misgivings, the book jacket adds that Hughes “agrees to fight for a not guilty verdict,” that will “ultimately force him to make profound, life and death choices, both inside and outside the courtroom.”
“The ending of this book, I understand will create a little controversy in some circles, but for it to work you have to like” Hughes, Clark said.
Hughes is more than likable and relatable, and “The Plinko Bounce” is a page turner, from the first sentence to the last.
Many of Clark’s novels have appeared on numerous bestseller lists, and the audio version of The Substitution Order was a number one national bestseller. Additionally, his novels have been chosen as a New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year, a Bookmarks Magazine Best Book of the Year, a Boston Globe Best Book of the Year, a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, a finalist for the Stephen Crane First Fiction Award, and the winner of the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award in 2009, 2016 and 2020.
Profits from “The Plinko Bounce” book signing will be used to fund a $10,000 scholarship in memory of Ann Belcher, Clark’s high school English teacher. The winner of the scholarship will be announced at the Sept. 12 event.
