In today’s episode recorded as a LIVE podcast at Park Road Books, we meet author Martin Clark, a retired Virginia Circuit Court judge who spins legal thrillers with a twist and who knows a thing or two about the legal system and the lawyers and defendants who, by choice or circumstance, are wrapped up in it.

Martin has been praised by Entertainment Weekly as “our best legal-thriller writer”—and his latest book, “The Substitution Order” is the focus of this episode.

When the book opens, we learn that the protagonist in the story, Kevin Moore, has gone from a high-flying Virginia attorney to a disbarred lawyer on probation, separated from his wife, short on cash and working at SUBstitution, the world’s saddest sandwich shop. He’s at rock bottom when a mysterious stranger wanders into the shop armed with a threatening “invitation” to join a multimillion-dollar insurance scam. It’s a Hobson’s choice. Kevin can agree to commit insurance fraud and have his law license restored or he can refuse the offer and face a fabricated malpractice case and felony criminal charges orchestrated by a gang of untouchable con artists.

In a review by The New York Times, Alafair Burke says that “The Substitution Order is not merely a good legal thriller; it’s a great one . . . . Clark cleverly weaves together . . . a truly thrilling ending.”

But first… we start with the beginning, where Martin reads from early in the book, where our hero has refused the offer to participate in the insurance scam and Caleb, the unwelcome and mysterious con man, advises him to consider his choice carefully.