Bear is Broken

Lachlan Smith bursts onto the crime fiction scene with Bear Is Broken, a phenomenal debut that combines the elements of classic PI novels with the contemporary sheen of the best legal thrillers. Leo Maxwell grew up in the shadow of his older brother, Teddy, a successful yet reviled criminal defense attorney, who racked up enemies as fast as he racked up acquittals. Leo has always tried to emulate Teddy, even following him into the legal profession. One day the two are at lunch when Teddy is shot in public, the gunman escaping through a crowd. As Teddy lies in a coma, Leo realizes that the search for his brother’s shooter falls upon him, as Teddy’s enemies weren’t merely the scum on the street but embedded within the police department as well. As Leo peels back the layers of Teddy’s mysterious past, he sees that the list of possible suspects is larger than he could have imagined. Leo must navigate the seedy underbelly of San Francisco, and the deeper he digs into his brother’s life, the more questions arise: about Teddy and his estranged ex-wife, about the ethics of Teddy’s career, and about the murder that tore their family apart decades ago. And somewhere, the person who shot Leo’s brother is still on the loose, and there are many who would happily kill Leo in order to keep it that way. Bear Is Broken is the first in a terrific new series, and establishes Lachlan Smith as a crime writer to watch and read.