The Tenth Justice [Hardcover]

Brad Meltzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

Fresh from Yale Law, Ben Addison is a new clerk for one of the Supreme Court's most respected justices. Along with his co-clerk Lisa, Ben represents the best of the fledgling legal community: sharp, perfectionistic, and painstakingly conscientious - but just as green. So when he inadvertently reveals the confidential outcome of an upcoming Court decision, and one of the parties to the case makes millions, Ben starts to sweat. Big time. Ben confides in Lisa and turns to his D.C. housemates for help. They offer their insiders' access - Nathan works at the State Department, Eric reports for a Washington daily, and Ober is an assistant to a leading senator - to help outsnake the blackmailer who holds Ben's once-golden future hostage. But it's not long before these inseparable pals discover how dangerous their misuse of power can be. And when a suspicious leak develops from within their own circle, Ben and his friends find themselves pitted against each other in a battle of shifting alliances and fierce deceptions that strike to the weaknesses in their friendships, threaten to ruin their careers - and ultimately may cost them their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA. This story of friendship and betrayal is set in Washington, DC, where four young men who have grown up together become housemates, each with his first big job opportunity. One of them, Ben Addison, is a brand-new clerk for a Supreme Court justice. Ben and his co-clerk Lisa are two of the best and the brightest of the legal community, their intelligence only barely exceeding their egos. But early in the Court session, he is tricked into revealing the confidential outcome of an upcoming decision to a man posing as a former clerk, and one of the parties in the case uses the information to make millions. Ben is in danger of losing his job, his reputation, and any chance for a place on the ladder to legal fame and success. Desperate to find the man who tricked him, he enlists the help of Lisa and his housemates. When the elusive villain tries to blackmail Ben into revealing further Court decisions, the search becomes even more intense, and Ben realizes that one of his friends is leaking the group's plans to the blackmailer. The story builds to an action-packed and satisfying conclusion, but lives are shattered in the process and the fabric of friendship is torn apart. YAs will be confronted by issues of loyalty, integrity, and trust, and at the same time will learn much about the decision-making process of the Supreme Court.?Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Hotshot young lawyer Ben Addison is on top of the world. Just out of Yale Law School, he's already landed the highly desirable top job of clerk to a Supreme Court justice, experiences instant chemistry with his new co-clerk Lisa, and shares an apartment with three lifelong friends. Then a misplaced trust leads Ben to reveal a confidential court decision, and his world begins to crash. With Ben's career in jeopardy and a blackmailer on his trail, his friends use their job connections at the State Department, a Washington newspaper, and a senator's office to aid Ben and Lisa in a plot to apprehend Ben's blackmailer. But when their own careers are threatened, allegiance fades and distrust sets in, turning Ben and his former allies against one another as events escalate and they find themselves struggling not to save their careers but their lives. The story flows smoothly in this engrossing legal thriller by lawyer Meltzer?and the plot is perfect for a blockbuster movie. A good purchase.?Lori Dunn, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Troy, N.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 389 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688150896
• ISBN-13: 978-0688150891
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (267 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Plausible/Implausible, January 7, 2000

By 

Adam Scoville (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tenth Justice (Hardcover)

Since starting law school, and continuing into being a clerk for a state supreme court, novels have become the occupation of the last ten minutes of my night, after I've become exhausted enough to stop what I was doing and drag my corpus to bed and before my eyelids slam down mid-sentence. The Tenth Justice, however, caused me to neglect friends and loved ones during my scarce 'free' time until it was finished, within two days. This book certainly scores as a page-turner.

The Tenth Justice's other claim to worthiness is its premise. First, it exposes the tremendous degree of influence judicial clerks, most fresh from law school, have over the written, precedential product of the high courts. Second, the book examines how easily someone could lulled into a false sense of security by feeling 'behind the scenes' and out of the public eye. That the primary work of opinion writing is done by clerks, with experienced judges acting mainly as watchful editors and mentors, is true of some chambers. The naive sense of invisibility and harmlessness one sometimes feels as a clerk is also not far off. That the protagonist clerks write U.S. Supreme Court opinions that sail by their Justice with hardly a changed word and that a clerk might give away the outcome of a major case at a first meeting are both sheer hyperbole. They are not so far out of the question, however, as to be beyond suspending my disbelief.

On the other hand, the quality of the writing probably says more about why Meltzer is writing page-turners, not being a clerk or a practicing lawyer himself. The clerks, alone in their office, frequently launch into tedious diatribes about the most basic elements of legal process; they constantly play the "designated idiot" where one character asks a stupid question solely so that the other can explain something to the reader. This is truly implausible coming from characters we presume to be the smartest that American legal academia can produce. The dialogue between friends is sophomoric, and the non-lawyer supporting cast collectively have an absurd, almost Bond-ian gadget portfolio. In addition, the book delivers no insight into the Supreme Court; not once does is the reader privy to a conversation with a Justice and the clerks apparently see their boss little more. I cannot imagine this book was the product of much research into the actual workings of the Court. Beyond the clever initial premise, I found the The Tenth Justice to be a mediocre but voraciously digested and entertaining read.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Be warned. Really bad book., January 27, 2002

By 

Irish Lace (St. Louis Missouri) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tenth Justice (Mass Market Paperback)

I admit it. I only finished this stupid novel because it was a gift from someone who knows I love police procedurals and legal thrillers. It seemed disrespectful to the giver and to the author for me to walk to the trash can and fling this book into the rotting leftovers of last night's enchiladas and rice when I was only on the 100th page. I also kept thinking, "This is a long book. It absolutely has got to get better!" Boy was I dumb. It didn't.

This is a most definitely NOT a "legal thriller." You will find no plaintiffs or defendents, no prosecuting or defense attorneys, no testimony or cross examinations, witnesses, juries or even any courtroom scenes. And you will definitely find absolutely NO thrills. It's not about the law. It's about five 20-somethings behaving badly. Its premise suggests that Ben, the supposedly brilliant protaganist (a Supreme Court clerk. Legal ... get it?) believes that he can fix an extremely stupid ethical lapse with still more ethical lapses. And his friends all go along with it. If they can just manage all this unethical behavior properly, they'll get away with it which will, of course, make it all OK!

The characters are drawn with almost no depth and then they get shallower. I defy anyone to care one whit about whiny, self-centered Ben by page 200. I just wanted to slap him silly, fire his sorry butt, throw the book in with the enchiladas and go watch a rerun of "Law And Order."

The editing stopped completely on about the 200th page. The thing just goes on and on and on while these five childish, self-absorbed and morally challenged "adults" have endless repetitive conversations in which they are being oh-so-witty, or they are screaming at one another. You can always tell when they are upset too, because the author gives us LOTS OF CAPITALIZATION TO SHOW THEY ARE ANGRY OR UPSET. Email-speak, no doubt.

There are moments when the writing rises above repetitive and uninspired, but not many. Just about the time I thought the story couldn't get any dumber, the author threw in some stupid "plot twist" which, I am sure, was intended to make this a page-turner. All the plot twists did, however, is show complete disrespect for the readers. Consider yourself warned: Really Bad Book

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Tenth Justice, December 29, 2001

By 

KERMIT NORDEEN (CHESAPEAKE, OHIO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tenth Justice (Mass Market Paperback)

My fascination with legal novels over the years led me
to trying Brad Meltzer's "The Tenth Justice".

This is the stuff of "Best Sellers"? After slogging
through several chapters of the prattle of
self-aggrandizing juveniles who are supposedly the
brilliant clerks of Supreme Court justices and other
brainy yuppie-types I said to myself "Surely this
gets better." Wrong. How many times can we read
"Don't you trust me?" ...or "That was stupid of me."?

I can only hope that this effort was written as
Meltzer's spoof of the legal novel genre that has
gained such great popularity. If so, he has done so
with success.