Steve's recent interview at Powell's Books

Some people will do anything to influence the Supreme Court. They will sweet-talk, sway, and seduce. They will beg, borrow, and steal — even lie. But will they kill?

Terry Scarborough is a legal scholar and high-court hanger-on who rubs people the wrong way. He is a provocateur who loves outrageous arguments and the kinds of controversies that make headlines.

When his blockbuster book on the constitutional origins of slavery ignites race riots and demands from black leaders to eliminate once and for all the language of slavery from the Constitution, Scarborough ups the ante. He claims to possess a mysterious piece of historic correspondence — a letter written by one of the nation's founders and said to confirm a dark deal implicating icons of American history in a cynical plot to seal for all time the fate of African slaves in America. When Scarborough is found beaten to death in a hotel room, a young man with connections to hate groups is charged with first-degree murder. It is a case that defense attorney Paul Madriani would gladly pass up, except for one thing: the man charged with the murder is the son of one of his closest and oldest friends.

Madriani, the cagey litigator, suspects something deeper and more veiled behind the murder. Amid the glare of cameras and the jeers of protesters, Madriani digs deep, pursuing evidence, as well as a witness, within the cloistered confines of the United States Supreme Court. This search sears the soul of the nation and threatens to fracture the foundations of the federal government.

What's the strangest or most interesting job you've ever had?
Writers are better liars than other people: true or false?
Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

Read more at: Powell's Book Interview