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judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Judicial Junkie.Reads
@judicialjunkie.bsky.social
75 followers 93 following 50 posts
⚖️ Legally Literate 📚 Book Reviews Courtroom dramas, thrillers, and literary fiction that has a least a whiff of a law angle.

www.judicialjunkie.com
www.judicialjunkie.substack.com
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judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚⚖️ In "Fear and Fury" Heather Ann Thompson restores humanity to the men shot by Bernie Goetz and brilliantly exposes the media playbook that still turns vigilantes into heroes.

@historianheather.bsky.social
@pantheonbooks.bsky.social

#BookSky #NetGalley #History

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"Fear and Fury" Review: When Vigilantes Become Folk Heroes
Historian Heather Ann Thompson on Bernie Goetz, the four young Black men he shot, and a media-rage playbook America never abandoned
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January 27, 2026 at 8:06 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
A Christmas Carol, but Scrooge killed the planet and there's no third act.

Master storyteller George Saunders' "Vigil" puts Big Oil on trial. Darkly comic & devastating.

Out Jan 27.

Thx to @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social and @netgalley.bsky.social for the ARC.

#Booksky #CliFi
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George Saunders Puts Big Oil on Trial in Brilliant "Vigil"
Vigil  George Saunders  Random House, 192 pages (Pub. Date 1/27)
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January 20, 2026 at 8:59 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Reposting because: Minnesota prosecutors resigned. Comey, James, Bolton indicted. Tapper’s “Race Against Terror” chronicles a DOJ that now feels like a fable. That expertise is disappearing in real time.

@jaketapper.bsky.social @matthewwatkins.bsky.social @atriabooks.bsky.social

bit.ly/3Y1w89U
Taking the Justice Out of the Justice Department
How Jake Tapper's "Race Against Terror" Showed Me What We've Already Lost
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January 14, 2026 at 3:27 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Did You Read That DocuSign Before Clicking? These Women’s Stories Show Why You Should 

📚⚖️Elizabeth Chamblee Burch’s riveting “The Pain Brokers,” reveals the multi-million dollar scam hiding in the fine print.

@eburch.bsky.social
@attriabooks.bsky.social

🙏Thanks for ARC

#BookSky

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How Pelvic Mesh Scams and Predatory Loans Targeted Women
A review of The Pain Brokers by Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
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January 13, 2026 at 4:20 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
A fantastic exhibition and book on drafts, details, and the craft behind John le Carré’s spy fiction writing. "Tradecraft" reveals what goes into creating a masterpiece: obsessive research, endless revision, and 1,237 boxes of handwritten archives.

@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

#BookSky

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How John le Carré's Tradecraft Really Works
A fantastic exhibition and book on drafts, details, and the craft behind John le Carré’s spy fiction writing
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January 6, 2026 at 8:50 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Ben Markovits’s brilliant “The Rest of Our Lives” follows a law professor on a road trip. The Booker committee called it “quietly exhilarating and moving” — they’re right. But they forgot to mention the pickup games.

#Booksky #NetGalley #Basketball

@summitbooks.bsky.social

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How People Reveal Themselves on the Basketball Court
A Review of The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
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December 30, 2025 at 7:53 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
When Mamdani was arrested for defending taxi drivers, he joined a long tradition. Con Lehane's "The Red Scare Murders" brings to life a 1949 NYC taxi strike where a Black Communist cab driver finds himself on death row.

#BookSky #Netgalley #EssentialNoir

@sohopress.bsky.social

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How “The Red Scare Murders” Makes 1950 Look Dangerously Present
Con Lehane’s gripping new novel shows how fear politics never disappears. It just adapts.
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December 16, 2025 at 2:06 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚Adam Morgan’s excellent "A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls" on trailblazing publisher Margaret C. Anderson revisits the 1921 Ulysses obscenity trial—sadly, newly relevant.

#BookBans #ComstockAct #BookSky

Thx for the galley @atriabooks.bsky.social

judicialjunkie.substack.com/p/how-do-you...
How Do You Defend Lesbians You Despise?
Adam Morgan’s “A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls” traces the 1921 Ulysses trial and its echoes in today’s censorship war
judicialjunkie.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:41 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
I went to Franklin Barbecue at Texas Tribune Fest for the brisket. After hearing Texas Tribune editor Matthew Watkins interview CNN's Jake Tapper, I left with a painfully clear picture of what a once functioning DOJ looked like.

@atriabooks.bsky.social @mwatkinstrib.bsky.social

#BookSky #DOJ
Taking the Justice Out of the Justice Department
How Jake Tapper's "Race Against Terror" Showed Me What We've Already Lost
bit.ly
December 3, 2025 at 2:10 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚When I launched Judicial Junkie in May, I promised myself I’d never use the over-used catch-all word “propulsive.”

Guess what? I failed. Because these books were propulsive.

#booksky #bestof2025 #legalthrillers #courtroomdrama

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Judicial Junkie’s Top Courtroom Dramas and Legal Thrillers of 2025
When I launched Judicial Junkie in May, I promised myself I’d never use the over-used catch-all word “propulsive.”
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November 26, 2025 at 6:05 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚Women who kill: rare & complex. From the archives of Texas Monthly, Skip Hollandsworth’s "She Kills" is sharp, humane true crime that's not sensationalized. A master storyteller at work.

#BookSky

Thx for the review copy!
@harperbooks.bsky.social

@texasmonthly.bsky.social

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Fatal Choices: Women, Murder and the Courtroom
Skip Hollandsworth chronicles the trials of women society never expected to kill. True crime may be about murder, but the writing is what lives.
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November 18, 2025 at 6:52 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Michael Connelly’s "The Proving Ground" is a razor-sharp legal thriller that makes the law’s newest frontier feel real: the space between code and culpability, where Mickey Haller faces the algorithm. It's justice vs. code.

@michaelconnelly.bsky.social
@littlebrown.bsky.social

📚
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The AI Ethicist Will See You Now
Can you sue a chatbot? Michael Connelly’s “The Proving Ground” puts AI on trial
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November 11, 2025 at 2:25 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Two must-read intros: Sloane Crosley on Dorothy Parker's "Constant Reader" (sharp, funny, befitting the author's reviews) and C.M. Kushins on Elmore Leonard's "Picket Line" (the backstory rivals the excellent novella).

#Booksky
@marinerbooks.bsky.social
@mcnallyeditions.com

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The Ultimate Literary Hack
Do you really want to slog through a 1,040-page biography? Or let an algorithm pick your next book?
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November 4, 2025 at 8:38 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Arundhati Roy’s searing memoir, "Mother Mary Comes to Me," memoir boils down a lifetime of fighting for justice. She got it from her mama. It reads like courtroom drama crossed with a family saga.

#Booksky #Books #Arundhatiroy
#mothermarycomestome

@scribnerbooks.bsky.social

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The Case for Never Backing Down (Even When the Law Really, Really Wants You To)
Arundhati Roy’s new memoir boils down a lifetime of fighting for justice. She got it from her mama.
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October 30, 2025 at 9:47 AM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚The Empire Strikes Back (Yet Again). Inside “Chagos Archipelago”: Author Tom Lutz on turning the afterlife of colonial power into a contemporary thriller.

#Booksky #DiegoGarciaMilitaryBase
@redhenpress.bsky.social

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Islands, Displacement & the Fiction of Sovereignty
Inside “Chagos Archipelago”: Tom Lutz on turning the afterlife of colonial power into a contemporary thriller
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October 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚A ghost of Agatha Christie (or a deluded fangirl? a sophisticated cosplayer?) haunts a Greenwich Village library in Amanda Chapman's pitch-perfect new mystery. Whimsical premise, serious craft: closed circles, red herrings, droll observations plus some serious mixology. 🍸
#BookSky
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A New Mystery Brings Agatha Christie Back to Life, and All I Can Think Is: My Mother Would Have Loved This
Even now, I can hear her quietly turning the pages
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October 14, 2025 at 12:23 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
"The Four Spent the Day Together" takes Chris Kraus from Marfa to Minnesota's Iron Range, where meth and murder blur into something haunting. Like Capote, but messier. No clean resolution, just fragments. Brilliant chaos. #NetGalley #Scribner #TheFourSpenttheDayTogether
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I Love Dick: The True Crime Years
Chris Kraus's New Book Takes on "In Cold Blood," But Makes It Autofiction
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October 7, 2025 at 1:04 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚Truth in a sworn affidavit? No. Evidence is now found in passive-aggressive WhatsApp messages. "The Killer Question" is Digital Footprint Noir at its best. And Janice Hallett proves to be the genre's Queen.

#NetGalley #BookSky

@atriabooks.bsky.social @janicehallett.bsky.social

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Your Digital Footprint Is the New Crime Scene
The Epistolary Novel Gets A Killer Tech Upgrade In Janice Hallett’s New Mystery The Judicial Junkie
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September 30, 2025 at 2:00 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
The best legal thriller of the year isn’t by Grisham or Connelly. It’s Culpability—a literary novel where a self-driving crash turns a family vacation into a criminal investigation. AI may be the star witness.

@bruceholsinger.bsky.social
@spiegelandgrau.bsky.social
#BookSky

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The Year's Best Legal Thriller Isn’t on the Crime Shelf
Bruce Holsinger’s "Culpability" is a literary gut-punch where AI, family guilt and law converge after a fatal crash
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September 23, 2025 at 1:10 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚 More than a whodunit, “A Case of Mice and Murder” explores what it means to be a bookworm. Gabriel, a barrister who’d rather read, is drawn into a London murder. Beautifully written, it asks: does reading bring us closer or keep us distant? @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social #BookSky bit.ly/3KpnE8T
In Defense Of The Solitary Bookworm's Mind
A Terrific Cozy Mystery That Made Me Want to Cancel Plans and Read Until 4 a.m.
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September 16, 2025 at 1:44 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
A gonzo legal thriller that sticks the landing: Cranor’s "Mississippi Blue 42" tackles race, corruption & unpaid labor in college football—with laughs, blood & duffle bags of cash.
Friday Night Lights, but NCAA—meets the DOJ.

#Booksky
@sohopress.bsky.social @mysteriousbookshop.com

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“Mississippi Blue 42:” A Gonzo Legal Brief for Paying College Athletes
Eli Cranor’s gripping new novel is a wild, brilliant takedown of race, greed and the NCAA’s unpaid labor system
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September 9, 2025 at 12:40 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
✨No new post this week (Labor Day pause!) but thrilled to share this: one of my early reviews was just selected for “The Stories That Shaped BAOS in 2025”—a living archive of work that resonated across the "Books Are Our Superpower" community.

@lailalalami.com

#BookSky

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Justice by Algorithm and Absurdity: Law, Trauma, and the Windowless Courtroom
I Spent Years in Family Court. “The Dream Hotel” and “Mothers and Sons” — one speculative, one starkly realistic — show how 5-minute legal…
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September 2, 2025 at 9:18 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📖What if Donna Leon threw a cocktail party and talked about opera, her favorite mysteries, what makes stories work and why Tom Ripley is the kind of sociopath you’d want a drink with? That’s the vibe of her excellent new book of essays.

#NetGalley
@groveatlantic.bsky.social

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The Best Literary Party I Ever Attended
9 Books that Donna Leon’s “Backstage” Added to My TBR Pile
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August 26, 2025 at 6:30 PM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
Fired from retail. $200K in student debt. Hunted by the Debt Police.

Kashana Cauley’s "The Payback" is a darkly funny heist novel about fighting back when the system’s already stacked against you.

@kashana.bsky.social @atriabooks.bsky.social

#ThePayback #KashanaCauley #Booksky

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How to Rob a System That’s Already Robbing You
This novel is “Ocean’s Eleven,” if Danny Ocean had just lost a minimum wage job and had $200,000 in student debt
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August 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
judicialjunkie.bsky.social
📚What happens when the courts walk away? In her author's note (yes, read it first!), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie states her t aim is to "write a wrong in the balance of stories." And she does: "Dream Count" is a reckoning. Not a verdict, but a greater truth.⚖️

#Booksky #DreamCounts

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When Fiction Delivers Justice
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Dream Count” reimagines a high-profile sexual assault case, giving a voice to a victim the legal system failed
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August 12, 2025 at 7:14 PM