Set legal thriller in specific or generic place?

Gregg Bell · Dec 15, 2020

I'm not a lawyer and I think setting my first legal thriller in a generic place would really make things easier for me (I'm not being lazy!) in that the actual lawyers who live in that area wouldn't be calling me out on any technicalities. I know Scott Turrow does that. We both live in suburban Chicago, and he writes about Kindle County, which is probably Cook County, where Chicago, and all the crime and corruption, is.

I also see writing a generic place as being helpful in that there will be places I don't have access to (judge's chambers, lawyer/prisoner interview rooms etc).

Any advice for me? Thanks.

janeofalltrades · Dec 16, 2020

i agree, I made up my own city for the main setting of my novel, and one piece of advice I have is to decide on a general geographic location. For instance I said my city was in western PA by the Ohio River. I grew up in that area so I'm familiar with the weather patterns, which help sell the location as real. The other thing is be consistent!

lonestarlibrarian · Dec 16, 2020

Sometimes the location is a character of its own. If you set your legal thriller in New Orleans, or New York City, or Boston, or Hollywood, each version would be very distinct. Likewise, if you set your legal thriller in a remote Alaskan town, or a small Texas county, or an Oklahoma reservation, or on a Hawaiian island, each of those settings would shift the flavor of the problems, the characters, and the environment in a very important way.

It's okay to write a generic town in a generic state that's just Somewheresville, USA. But sometimes it helps attract attention to your books if you cater to people who are in love with a particular location, and love to read anything that gets on their radar that deals with that place in a fulfilling and accurate way.

benbenberi · Dec 16, 2020

Laws and legal practices are very geography-dependent -- the laws and institutions and norms of each place are different in detail, and often in broad outline, from those in other places. So a "generic location" is impossible for a legal thriller. For it to have any coherence it has to be rooted in the specifics of a particular place. You can invent a fictional location, and there are good reasons why you maybe should. But it ought to be modeled in the specifics of a real place. Especially since you're not a real lawyer and you don't have the background or experience to make things up that would be convincing to anyone who does know how the law works in real life. (And honestly it's probably easier to do the necessary research for one well-documented place than to do enough broad-based research to make it all up from scratch.)

Gregg Bell · Dec 16, 2020

janeofalltrades said:
i agree, I made up my own city for the main setting of my novel, and one piece of advice I have is to decide on a general geographic location. For instance I said my city was in western PA by the Ohio River. I grew up in that area so I'm familiar with the weather patterns, which help sell the location as real. The other thing is be consistent!

Thanks Jane. Yeah, people do want to know location. And consistency is important for sure.

Gregg Bell · Dec 16, 2020

lonestarlibrarian said:
Sometimes the location is a character of its own. If you set your legal thriller in New Orleans, or New York City, or Boston, or Hollywood, each version would be very distinct. Likewise, if you set your legal thriller in a remote Alaskan town, or a small Texas county, or an Oklahoma reservation, or on a Hawaiian island, each of those settings would shift the flavor of the problems, the characters, and the environment in a very important way.

It's okay to write a generic town in a generic state that's just Somewheresville, USA. But sometimes it helps attract attention to your books if you cater to people who are in love with a particular location, and love to read anything that gets on their radar that deals with that place in a fulfilling and accurate way.

Thanks librarian. You're right. And I don't like reading about Kindle County or some fictitious place. Maybe for a novel it's okay, but a lot of readers of legal thrillers are reading them for the authenticity. Plus Cook County is a hotbed of crime and corruption. I think I'll stay true to keeping it there.

Gregg Bell · Dec 16, 2020

benbenberi said:
Laws and legal practices are very geography-dependent -- the laws and institutions and norms of each place are different in detail, and often in broad outline, from those in other places. So a "generic location" is impossible for a legal thriller. For it to have any coherence it has to be rooted in the specifics of a particular place. You can invent a fictional location, and there are good reasons why you maybe should. But it ought to be modeled in the specifics of a real place. Especially since you're not a real lawyer and you don't have the background or experience to make things up that would be convincing to anyone who does know how the law works in real life. (And honestly it's probably easier to do the necessary research for one well-documented place than to do enough broad-based research to make it all up from scratch.)

(And honestly it's probably easier to do the necessary research for one well-documented place than to do enough broad-based research to make it all up from scratch.)

Undoubtedly. Thanks.

You can invent a fictional location, and there are good reasons why you maybe should. But it ought to be modeled in the specifics of a real place.

But isn't there just a bit lacking in writing about a fictional place. "oh, he's really writing about NYC or New Orleans or whatever." Write about the place. That's what I'm thinking.

Set legal thriller in specific or generic place?

Gregg Bell

janeofalltrades

lonestarlibrarian

senior bean supervisor

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW

Gregg Bell

Gregg Bell

Gregg Bell