A large dollop of romance sweetens the serious ethical concerns and women’s issues highlighted in Devil’s Defense (She Writes Press 2024), an entertaining legal novel penned by Lori B. Duff. Duff is a Georgia resident who has been a judge and lawyer for over thirty years. Frustrated by the unrealistic courtroom depictions and misrepresentations of the South in novels, Duff, a two-time winner of Georgia Bar Journal’s annual fiction competition, decided to write a more realistic version.
New-to-town attorney Jessica Fischer is tasked with defending the town hero, the “Great and Powerful Coach Frank Wishingham III” in a paternity suit. Jessica welcomes the business, but his cavalier, sexist attitude grates on her. Still, she understands that “in the town of Ashton, Georgia, the order of worship was first Jesus, second America, and third the high school football coach, with the second two interchangeable if it were a winning season . . . . And here was the high school football coach, in the middle of winning season, sitting in her office.” The timing is terrible. It is right before play-offs, and Coach has just learned he fathered a daughter named Francesca sixteen years earlier. He figures the mother and daughter got along fine without him for the last sixteen years, so they could get along without him now. Jessica is offended by his lack of interest in his offspring. She feels he should take responsibility for his child, both financially and emotionally, but Coach is only willing to throw money at his problem. Make it go away, he tells her. Jessica realizes defending Coach will be good for her business and attract new clients, so she holds her nose and represents him.
Jessica’s assistant, the people-wise Diane, encourages her to wise up to the ways of the world, and do her best not to make Ashton’s hero look bad because the judge surely won’t. Like everyone else in Ashton, the judge loves football. The widowed Diane lusts over Coach—along with every other good-looking fellow she encounters. She is just a gal looking for a good time and encourages Jessica to do the same. Besides humor, Diane also adds wisdom to the story:
Diane got out of her chair and walked over to Jessica and patted her on the shoulder. “Honey you are smart, super-smart with all of those books, but you have absolutely no idea how the world actually works.”
I don’t, thought Jessica. This was her greatest weakness, she knew, fighting hard for the world to be what she wanted it to be instead of recognizing it for the cold place it was. She grabbed Diane’s hand and leaned her cheek against it. “You live in a completely different reality than I do, don’t you?”
“Honey, you see what you want to see. I see what is. You need me. Without me, you’d make brilliant legal arguments and then surprised every time you lost a case.”
Diane proves to be more than an assistant. She is also a good friend who wants only the best for her young boss.
Diane stands solidly in Coach’s corner—until her niece Kaitlyn finds herself pregnant while still in high school. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem fair that Kaitlyn’s boyfriend gets to pursue all his college dreams while Kaitlyn is going to be sidetracked by changing diapers. As Kaitlyn’s legal representative and adviser, Jessica demonstrates kindness and sensitivity to a young woman caught in a difficult situation.
Jessica is an introvert, and “nothing made her feel more like an outsider than when she tried to make her way in.” Diane is always trying to get Jessica interested in dating. Finally, Bobby Turnbull, a local reporter, catches Jessica’s interest. Their romance also leads to an ethical dilemma: how can Jessica date this reporter if she can never discuss her work with him? Is he really interested in her? Or only in using her as a potential source for stories? What will her clients think when his stories appear in the local paper? Will they think she betrayed them?
Duff is too fine of a writer to portray Coach only as a stereotypical big lout. She brings out the reasons behind his refusal to meet his daughter. The nuances of morality and sexual politics are masterfully developed in Devil’s Defense as Coach’s and Kaitlyn’s situations both mirror and differ from each other.
All in all, Devil’s Defense is a great escapist read—and quite a bit more, as readers will ponder what a biological father owes not only to his child, but also to the mother of his child.
Lori B. Duff
Lori B. Duff has been president of the Georgia Council of Municipal Court Judges and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and has served in various leadership roles in those and other legal and writing organizations. Devil’s Defense is her first novel and the first in her Fischer at Law series.
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