By Advice of Counsel

In 1914 New York, justice is not blind. It's for sale to whoever can afford it. When a street confrontation ends with a brick through a window, seventeen-year-old Tony Mathusek is dragged into custody, his youth and innocence meaning nothing to a system eager to make an example of someone. The Mathusek family, recent immigrants with little English and less money, have no recourse until they find Mr. Tutt, a sharp-tongued, unorthodox lawyer who sees the machine of injustice for what it is and refuses to let it grind down the powerless. What follows is a courtroom drama that unpacks the ugly machinery of early twentieth-century American law: the cops who arrest first and ask questions never, the prosecutors who chase convictions over truth, and the attorneys who navigate the system's loopholes not for justice but for profit. Train writes with the urgency of a man who witnessed the real corruption of his era and decided to name it. The result is a propulsive legal thriller that also serves as a fierce critique of how easily the law becomes a weapon against those without the means to fight back. More than a period piece, it's a reminder that the struggle between the powerful and the accursed is never merely historical.