Narayan Radhakrishnan's Interview with
Kermit Roosevelt
Author of
In the Shadow of the Law

Narayan:
This Pennsylvania University Law Professor is the new voice in legal thriller writing. His debut work In the Shadow of the Law has been well received across the world -- & I for one mightily enjoyed it. I had the chance to conduct this short eInterview wherein we talked about his book, legal thrillers, & the future of the genre.
     My first question, how did your novel come into being?

Prof. Roosevelt:
While I was working as an associate at a Chicago firm, I started thinking about the different perspectives from which I'd seen the legal system -- I had been a non-lawyer, & then a law student, & then clerked at the federal court of appeals level & then for the US Supreme Court. & I wanted to try to write something that would show the law & the legal system from all these different perspectives, & that would say something about the different roles people play in the legal system & the different choices that they confront... & the result is In the Shadow of the Law.

Narayan:
I feel that there is a distinct Scott Turow touch in your style of narration. Were you influenced by him -- I ask this because there are many Grisham wannabes in legal thriller writing but few who aspire to be the next Turow?

Prof. Roosevelt:
I was certainly inspired by Turow. I remember reading Presumed Innocent when I was quite young & being astonished at the beauty & intelligence of the writing, which was something I hadn't associated with legal thrillers. Scott Turow made me realize that it's possible to write an entertaining legal thriller that also has a pleasing prose style & gripping characters, & that engages some deeper questions.

Narayan:
Judging by the book, I feel you are the new voice in legal fiction writing for this Millennium, my belief being strengthened by the very fact that same publishers who made Scott Turow a superstar have published your work -- how did Farrar, Straus & Giroux come to publish your book?

Prof. Roosevelt:
My agent, Tina Bennett, marketed my book to a number of publishers, & we received a couple of offers that I followed up in interviews. FSG offered me the chance to work with Jonathan Galassi, who edits Scott Turow & Jonathan Franzen, & I felt that that was an opportunity I really couldn't turn down.

Narayan:
By the way who are your favorite legal fiction authors and favorite legal thriller reads?

Prof. Roosevelt:
Scott Turow is definitely at the top of the list for legal thrillers. I loved Presumed Innocent & The Burden of Proof, & also his more recent Reversible Errors. There are other people writing about the law that I like, who I wouldn't so much consider thriller writers -- Louis Begley & Louis Auchincloss in particular. They have a lot of characters who are lawyers, & they understand lawyers, but their plots don't necessarily turn on law.

Narayan:
Lawyer-novelists are aplenty, but law professors/ teachers writing novels are very few. Save for a Alan Dershowitz & Stephen Carter -- there are few legal fiction works written by law teachers. Why do you think there exist such a disparity?

Prof. Roosevelt:
I'm not sure why that's so. It might be because law professors have scholarship as an outlet for their writing urges, which lets them explore more or less whatever they want. Lawyers are much more constrained -- you can't write a brief about anything that interests you -- so perhaps they're more naturally tempted by fiction.

Narayan:
What's next? Can we expect other thrillers; I mean legal thrillers from you in the near future?

Prof. Roosevelt:
My next book is going to be about constitutional interpretation. I love writing fiction, & I've been thinking about the next novel, but I also have academic obligations. It might take me a couple of years before I get back to fiction, but I definitely will.

Narayan:
Thanks Professor Roosevelt, looking forward to more top notch legal fiction from you Sir.

Do catch Narayan's review of Kermit Roosevelt's In the Shadow of the Law - I hope it makes you go out & buy yourself a copy!

Narayan Radhakrishnan
2005©Narayan Radhakrishnan
Published 09/11/05