By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
Award-winning local author Mike Langan recently released his third legal mystery novel.
Titled “Ready for the People,” the new book follows struggling 30-something lawyer Hank Fisher, who gets assigned to a case as a special prosecutor.
Fisher realizes the target of the prosecution, a mild-mannered scientist, has not committed a crime at all and is instead subject to a corrupt regulatory official’s plot to steal one of the man’s inventions, thereby throwing Fisher into a dilemma of conscience.
“It’s an amusing, engaging story about a good character who makes a bad decision and then how he tries to get out of it,” Langan said. “He’s caught between his ethical duty and just trying to survive as a lawyer.”
Set in Washington D.C. and the Virginia Peninsula, Langan’s latest novel serves as a stand-alone sequel taking place two years after the events of his 2008 release “Ready for the Defense.”
In July Hilliard & Harris published “Ready for the People” alongside the second editions of the book’s predecessor as well as Langan’s first novel “Dark Horse,” which was renamed “Grave Injuries.”
After its publication, “Ready for the Defense” won three national awards, the first two from Readers’ Favorite and Reader Views and the third from the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition (EPIC) for best mystery/suspense novel.
“Dark Horse” was a finalist in the best mystery category of Foreword Magazine’s Book Awards.
Langan, a resident of Fayetteville, also wrote a pair of short stories serialized in the Eagle Bulletin.
Started in the first half of the decade and returned to over time, the 278-page “Ready for the People” concludes around the 77,000-word mark.
The novel can be purchased in both paperback and electronic formats through Amazon. It is also available upon request at local bookstores.
Langan said he plans to eventually write a third book in the series of Hank Fisher novels but will need time to build the plot.
“I’m a big believer in plotting things out beforehand,” Langan said. “I don’t want to go on the trip without knowing where I wanted to go in the first place. Then I’ll never know if I got there. I take a lot of time on the front end thinking through what I want to do.”
He said he also has some yet-to-be-published novels and children’s picture books on the shelf.
Langan said he admires the legal thrillers of Lisa Scottoline, the crime fiction of Elmore Leonard and the humorous writings of Carl Hiaasen.
The locally based author graduated from Jamesville-DeWitt High School in 1986.
He later attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts before studying philosophy and English at Colgate University.
He eventually went on to George Mason University, where he received a master of fine arts in creative writing and a degree in law.
Langan has taught undergraduate courses at George Mason University and Syracuse’s Whitman School of Management and now works as a career law clerk to a United States district judge.
