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Every commercially minded novelist knows that before you contact a publisher with your first novel, you need to have a sequel or two in development.
Hawaii author Douglas Corleone introduced hard-drinking defense attorney Kevin Corvelli in 2010 with "One Man’s Paradise" and followed it a year later with "Night on Fire."
With "Last Lawyer Standing" (Minotaur Books, $25.99), the third book in the series, Corleone has Corvelli entangled in a murder case that involves Russian prostitutes, corrupt Honolulu police officers, an international drug ring, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the governor of Hawaii.
"Last Lawyer Standing" will be the last we hear of Corvelli for a while. Corleone, a former New York defense attorney, said his publisher wants him to switch genres and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
"They really liked the series but we weren’t selling enough. … They’re basically looking for these big blockbuster thrillers that are loud and can be made into movies," said the author, who lives in West Oahu.
His yet-to-be-published book, titled "Good as Gone," will be an international thriller about a former U.S. marshal whose search for a missing American girl takes him across Europe. It’s due out in August.
In "Last Lawyer Standing," protagonist Corvelli gets close to secret-agent exploits himself. "I tried to make (it) a little broader in scope. The other two were about specific cases and more about Kevin. … By the third book he really wants to change something and he’s not quite sure how to go about it, so I wanted something a little broader in scope."
