Mark Pryor's Blog

 This past week was a tough one.

Sure, turning 58 was part of it but that just means I made it another year, and I'm assuming 60 is the new 40, so that's all good.

You see, I spent my birthday battling it out in a felony jury trial in Travis County. I was defending a client (I'll call him John) I'd worked with since I joined the firm, someone I've known for more than three years now. And while the result was better than if he'd accepted the state's plea offer, my client is still headed to prison. ...

I'm still learning this criminal defense stuff.

People often ask me how I like the switch, how it's going, and what I usually tell them is that I've been surprised by the many things I didn't know, or put more positively the many things I'm learning. In the early days, I meant by that the practical and procedural aspects of the job -- how to get someone out of jail, what motions to file and when, that kind of thing.

But these days I mean more that that, I'm talking about the biggest thing that I d...

How much does justice, or the outcome of a case, depend on what amounts to a roll of the dice?

You see, the thing about being a prosecutor that some folks don't realize is the broad discretion assistant district and county attorneys have with their cases. Everyone's busy, everyone's overworked so generally speaking unless a line prosecutor screws up, their work doesn't get too much scrutiny.

That's especially true with the "smaller" cases - the ones that don't make the headlines, or maybe just the...

 With my thirteenth novel about to be published, and you know I'll be posting about that soon enough, I still enjoy hearing from readers of my other books. And, 95% of the time, when people email me it's either to say nice things or to ask when the next Hugo Marston book will be out. Or written. 

You'll notice that if 95% of the emails are lovely, that leaves 5% that are... less so. And I'm endlessly fascinated by the psychology of the 5 percenters.

Let me start by reassuring you - I'm no snowflak...

One thing that has really surprised me as a defense lawyer is the number of "normal" people who get arrested.

Let me back up a moment - yes, there are many people in the criminal justice system who are dropped into it (often by their own actions) and never get out. Their criminal histories are pages long, and any damage to their reputations or job opportunities has long since happened.

In fact, in some ways these cases are (I imagine) easier to handle, because another misdemeanor plea doesn't chan...

Here's a short post to address an issue (pet peeve?!) that I feel like I've discussed before. Somehow, shockingly, the entire world hasn't read and absorbed. 

I constantly see the terms "jail" and "prison" used interchangeably. In books, TV shows, and in general conversation.

But they are different.

You don't want to be in jail, but you definitely don't want to be in prison.

JAIL : this is where you go for short periods of time, either after being arrested or as punishment for a misdemeanor crime. J...

I could never remember which side supposedly had the black hat or the white hat. 

I suspect, whichever side you are on you purport to be white-hatted. I'm good with that, except it means I swapped a white hat for a... white hat?!

Enough about hats.

Just over a year ago, two mates took me out for dinner. Rick Cofer and Geoffrey Puryear, former prosecutors with me. Good people who I knew and who I liked, and who asked me to join their criminal defense firm and have a little fun trying cases and helpi...

I've been thinking about resurrecting the blog for a while now, I used to enjoy sharing my thoughts and experiences as a prosecutor and getting feedback from folks. So I'm back.

For those who don't know me outside of the blog, well, I'm now a criminal defense attorney - a partner with the fabulous law firm of Cofer & Connelly. I'll write a post about why I made the change in a week or two, but I wanted this first one to be a brief catch-up.

So, what else is new with me? After all it's been almost ...

This post was first published on the fantastic Jungle Red Writers blog, yesterday August 24, 2016.

I wanted to post it here, too, since I think it's a good look behind the creation of THE PARIS LIBRARIAN, my latest novel in the Hugo Marston series.

Enjoy!

There are two stories that lie between the pages of THE PARIS LIBRARIAN. One makes me cry, the other makes me laugh.Shall we start with the tears? Good, so let me present a nice photo of a gentleman called Michael Harmuth. He’s with his daughte...

Just a short note to welcome into the my latest novel, the seventh in the Hugo Marston series: The Paris Librarian .



And also the book trailer, for more immediate gratification:


Enjoy!