Joey Hartstone

Joey Hartstone works across screenwriting, television, and fiction, bringing an ear for adversarial dialogue to courtroom stories. The Local, his debut novel, was issued by Doubleday in 2022 and follows attorney James Euchre in Marshall, Texas, a city known for patent litigation. When Euchre’s client is accused after a federal judge dies, the lawyer steps beyond his usual intellectual-property practice to lead a nationally watched criminal defense. Hartstone builds the case around professional loyalties, local grudges, and the strain between Euchre and his better-known lawyer father. His earlier screen credits include the films LBJ and Shock and Awe, both directed by Rob Reiner, along with work on The Good Fight and Your Honor. That background is visible in the novel’s compact scenes and pointed exchanges, but the book also lingers on how a small legal community remembers old conflicts. Vintage later published the paperback, styling the work as The Local: A Legal Thriller.