“Batista
does it again when international intrigue collides with murder in Extraordinary Rendition! A high -priced
Wall Street lawyer gets the shock of a lifetime... law school never
prepared him for this! It's a fast ride--buckle up!"
--Nancy Grace, Attorney,
TV Personality and NY Times
Bestselling Author of Death on the D-List
When
Ali Hussein—suspected terrorist and alleged banker for Al Qaeda—is finally
transported from Gitmo to the US mainland to stand trial, many are stunned when
Byron Carlos Johnson, pre-eminent lawyer and the son of a high-profile diplomat,
volunteers as counsel. On principle,
Johnson thought he was merely defending a man unjustly captured through
Rendition and water-boarded illegally. But Johnson soon learns that there is
much more at stake than one man’s civil rights.
Hussein’s
intimate knowledge of key financial transactions could lead to the capture of—or
the unabated funding of—the world’s most dangerous terror
cells. This makes Hussein the target of corrupt US intelligence forces on one
side, and ruthless international terrorists on the other. And, it puts Byron Carlos Johnson squarely in
the crosshairs of both.
Pulled
irresistibly by forces he can and cannot see, Johnson enters a lethal maze of
espionage, manipulation, legal traps and murder. And when his life, his love,
and his acclaimed principles are on the line, Johnson may have one gambit left
that can save them all; a play that even his confidants could not have
anticipated. He must become the hunter among hunters in the deadliest game.
Written
by no-holds-barred-attorney Paul Batista, Extraordinary Rendition excels not
only as an action thriller, but as a sophisticated legal procedural as well;
tearing the curtains away from the nation’s most controversial issues.
Provocative.
Smart. Heart-pounding. A legal thriller of the highest order.
About the Author:
Paul
Batista, novelist and television personality, is one of the most widely
known trial lawyers in the country. As a trial attorney, he specializes
in federal criminal litigation. As a media figure, he is known for his
regular appearances as guest legal commentator on a variety of
television shows including, Court TV, CNN, HLN and WNBC. He’s also appeared in the HBO movie, You Don't Know Jack, starring Al Pacino.
A prolific writer, Batista authored the leading treatise on the primary federal anti-racketeering statute, Civil RICO Practice Manual, which is now in its third edition (Wiley & Sons, 1987; Wolters Kluwer, 2008). He has written articles for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The National Law Journal.
Batista's debut novel, Death's Witness, was awarded a Silver Medal by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). And his new novel, Extraordinary Rendition, is now being published—along with a special reissue of Death’s Witness—by Astor + Blue Editions.
Author Guest Post:
WHY MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM BUSY LAWYER TO NOVELIST?
More basically, why exit from a business with a good
regular paycheck to a business where the financial rewards are uncertain? Why exchange a suit for a casual shirt and
jeans? I get asked these questions a
lot, and they are in fact questions I ask myself.
Let's start with a disclaimer. I haven't entirely abandoned the practice of
law. This is work I've done for more
than thirty years, and old habits die hard. Besides, I like it. More important
is the fact that the legal work I do provides fuel for the novels I write. A criminal case or even a civil lawsuit
involves a story, a narrative. Part of
the function of a lawyer is to shape the narrative -- not to fabricate facts
but to tell a story.
Creating fiction, however, does give me a license to do
more than just shape the narrative of a case.
In writing a novel I have the ability and the incentive to weave
imagined events together, to create personalities and personal histories, to
generate intrigue and conflict. In
practicing law, I’m confined by facts -- and those facts can be extremely
interesting given the nature of the work I do -- but there are no such
constraints in writing fiction.
There's another factor.
Law is a highly regulated business.
No matter how independent you may be as a lawyer, there are people known
as judges. They require you to do
specific things on their schedule, not on yours. They want you to do things their way, not
necessarily yours. They tend to have
outsized personalities -- wearing a robe can transform a guy or gal who in
civilian clothes is demure and shy into a muscled-up action figure. And there are also clients. They get to call you in the middle of the
night.
The external controls on fiction-writing are
different. Sure, an editor can set
"deadlines" but those are more goals and aspirations rather than
drop-dead dates. You can be disbarred
for missing a judge-imposed deadline if you do that too often. The worst a publisher can do is get mad at
you.
But the most important reason for transforming myself
into a novelist from a practicing lawyer is the beauty of transformation. The stuff of a novelist's life is different
from the stuff of a lawyer's life.
Creating novels is a liberating experience; you can let loose your
imagination. I find I can have a passion
and a drive that, even though I’ve loved practicing law, I can't completely tap
into in a courtroom. You hear commencement speakers constantly delivering to
young graduates the trite mandate to "follow your passions." As you move through life and hit the jarring
realities of jobs, families and obligations, you can get cynical about those
conventional admonitions to follow your passions, live out your dreams, and
fulfill your talents.
But those inspirational messages do have meaning, at
least for yours truly. Even a lawyer can break out of the constraints of the
life he or she has lived. There is
something invigorating, even for a seasoned adult, in taking risks and having
the courage to give up security and embrace something unknown, strange,
exciting -- fresh.
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