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Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a print copy of Hide and Be and its immediate sequel,
My Brother, Myself to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the
tour.
Twin brothers Arthur and
Martin suffered horrible abuse as children, forcing them to survive by seamlessly assuming each other’s
identities. Living each other’s lives provides protection from the trauma of their past. But when tragedy
strikes, one of the brothers plummets into a dissociative crisis that leads him down a murderous
path.
As the body count rises, two cases end up in the courtroom, where judges, lawyers, and psychiatrists try
to piece together which twin is the suspect and which is the victim. Everyone in the courtroom strives to
bring the victims to justice–but how can justice be served when no one is sure who the defendant truly
is?
Read an Excerpt
Like I said, me and Marty were from Maine. Born, bred, and fed. By foster parents mostly. Always hated
the cold. We lived in drafty houses in winter, wore cheap coats in spring and fall, but not knowing any
better, just accepted it. Lived our lives wherever the caseworkers said. You know, go here, stay there,
new doctors, and interchangeable houses.
A general practitioner, whose first name was Doctor, talked to our first foster mother, but not us.
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Greyson,” the doctor said.
That’s what he always called her—Missus—she didn’t have a first name, and he didn’t have a last. He
was Doctor and she was Mrs. Us? We were just two little jellybeans sitting in one chair. Doctor had
three chairs in his office. One for her, one for him, and the third for us. I remember liking that—same
chair, same us.
“Autonomous language is common, harmless, really. It’ll go away in time,” he told her. Not us. He never
said anything to us. We don’t remember the exact words, but who cares? Fumbuck, he knew. You? How
can you tell? Autonomous, dummy. Marty told me.
“They will always be hard to tell apart. Dress them differently. They will want to be together, with their
family gone and all, but treat them like regular brothers, even if they are identical twins.”
About the Author I am a retiring lawyer, a working author, and a preserving blogger. I was a full-
time trial lawyer for thirty-two years in a large Phoenix firm. I was a part-time law professor for the last
twenty-nine years. As of summer, 2023, I am writing, publishing, and blogging full time. My first book
was a textbook published by the Arizona State Bar Association. My first novel was published by the
University of New Mexico Press. I’ve written ten novels and eight nonfiction titles as of July 2023.
From the day I entered law school, I’ve been reading cases, statutory law and writing about legal
conundrums and flaws in our criminal and civil justice systems. I’ve always read novels, nonfiction, and
historical fiction by great authors who were never corrupted by the staid habits of trial lawyers. I write
long-form, interspersed with the occasional blog, op-ed, or essay. One of the unexpected benefits of
reading the law is learning how to write about it. Somewhere along the trajectory from a baby lawyer to
a senior one, I became intoxicated with blending nonfiction with fiction in books, rather than legal
documents. After spending thirty years in courtrooms trying cases, I started writing about them. That led
to writing novels while borrowing from famous historical settings and lesser-known characters. My
courtroom days were chock full of ideas, notions, and hopes about ultimately becoming an author. I
organized and memorized critical information for judges, juries, and clients. Now I use that experienceto write vivid fiction and immersive nonfiction. I moved away from trial practice to teaching law
students how to use creative writing techniques to tell their client’s stories, in short form.
F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” The same
could be said of my transition from trying cases to writing crime fiction. I’ve been holding my breath for
twenty years waiting for galley proofs and book reviews. Anais Nin spoke for all of us when she said,
“We write to taste life twice.”
My first novel, The Gallup 14, won a coveted starred review from Publishers Weekly. I won a Spur Award
from Western Writers of America in 2004 for my first nonfiction book (“Miranda, The Story of America’s
Right to Remain Silent”). I won the 2010 Arizona Book of the Year Award, The Glyph Award, and a
Southwest Publishing Top Twenty award in 2010, for “Innocent Until Interrogated—The Story of the
Buddhist Temple Massacre.” My third nonfiction title (“Anatomy of a Confession—The Debra Milke
Case”) was highly acclaimed. My nonfiction title “CALL HIM MAC—Ernest W. McFarland—The Arizona
Years” was widely and favorably reviewed. My latest nonfiction crime book, “Nobody Did Anything
Wrong But Me, was published by Twelve Tables Press, one of America’s most distinguished publisher of
law books about important legal issues. No New York Times bestsellers, yet.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Gary-Stuarts-Books-223958520472/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/garylesterstuar
Email:
Gary@garylstuart.com
Website:
http://www.garylstuart.com
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