Former Chattanooga resident has novel published
Avery Duff launches ‘Beach Lawyer’ series
Robert Worth seems to have everything going for him: good-looking, hard-working, athletic, ambitious but not to the point he’s lost his principles to greed. He’s just days away from making partner at his law firm within his goal of five years. Life is good.
Then he gets a late-night phone call from a client whom senior partner Jack Pierce is trying to rid the firm of — and she claims Pierce has sexually assaulted her. Events lead Worth to break a cardinal rule of the firm: Don’t make an enemy of Jack Pierce.
That’s the catalyst for the plot of Avery Duff’s new legal thriller, “Beach Lawyer” (Thomas & Mercer, $9.86 paperback, 382 pages). It’s a multilayered tale of backstabbing, greed and manipulation that continually surprises readers with where Duff’s mind takes them.
Duff, a former Chattanoogan, pens an eclectic supporting cast of characters that include drug addicts, tatted-up beach volleyball players, cops and cons and a pair of bisexual female friends who are as street-smart as they are business-savvy.
“The thing about Robert is, he’s not a perfect guy, not a Dudley Do-Right, but he’s in a world where being a square shooter doesn’t really work out well for him,” says Duff of his protagonist
during a recent phone interview.
Even so, his character is a success, he believes, because he is relatable.
“He’s a guy trying to do a job and get ahead, and that’s most people.
“In screenplays, you ask ‘Why do I like this guy? Who is he? What’s he trying to solve, what’s his problem?’ So I approached writing a novel the same way because I don’t want to spend a lot of time with someone people won’t like; particularly when you start out with a lawyer, because a lot of people don’t like lawyers.”
Duff says he made the decision to be a novelist five years ago. His first novel, “Rider,” was about a pair of orphans from Chattanooga. They run away to visit their mother who is in a women’s prison near Nashville because the younger brother has never met his mother and wants her to give him a name. But when they get there, the boys learn their mother died the night before.
“The older brother, who is sweet and smart but a liar, sees a Ryder truck going by and tells his brother she was going to name him Ryder, which the younger brother thinks is Rider. They end up on the wrong side of the law, but you like them. The book ends up being about anybody who deserves forgiveness if they can forgive themselves,” Duff explains.
Although “Rider” gained Duff a manager, it wasn’t until “Beach Lawyer” was written that he got an agent. Thomas & Mercer, an imprint of Amazon Publishing that focuses on mysteries and thrillers, published the novel and has been promoting it since its release May 1. The book may be purchased online through Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Duff lives on the Pacific Coast in Los Angeles, and he draws from that beach lifestyle and his legal knowledge for “Beach Lawyer.” He says he mapped out the intricate plot before he began writing and quit screenwriting to focus solely on his novel, which took a year and a half to complete.
“If you’re doing it right, you dream about it. You think about it a lot. It creeps into your life.”
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-7576284.