Club Calvi talks to authors James Patterson & Mike Lupica talk about their new book "The Hamptons Lawyer"

CBS News

7 days ago

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New York Times bestselling authors James Patterson and Mike Lupica are back with another "Jane Smith Thriller." The first book in the series, "12 Months to Live," was a Club Calvi Ficpick in 2023. Book three in the series, "The Hamptons Lawyer" is out now.
Patterson is one of the most prolific writers of our time, with nearly 300 books published. "Too many," he joked with Mary. "The only biography of me: James Patterson, too many books."
Patterson says you don't have to have read the other books in the Jane Smith series to enjoy "The Hamptons Lawyer." Lupica told Mary that he and Patterson take pride in writing strong female characters.
"We are married to two brilliant, beautiful women and they read our stuff before it gets to our female editor," Lupica said.
"Mike's wife, Taylor, is reading and then my wife, Sue, reads and then we have a woman editor who is as tough as our wives almost," said Patterson.
"If they don't like these characters, our lives at home become extremely difficult," Lupica added.
In the series, Jane is fighting cancer.
"Her mantra is work to live, live to work," Lupica says. "She's defending a guy who is pretty much a dirtbag. She believes he got set up. This is the most, and this is a new word that I came up with, the most 'courtroomy,' of the Jane Smith series. This trial is really fun. And as we always say about Jane, it will probably work out well if somebody doesn't kill her first."
Mary asked Patterson about his long career, writing many books in several genres.
"Somebody said you are lucky if you find something you like to do in life, and that it's a miracle if they pay you to do it," Patterson said. "I get to do that. There's a line that's been driving me, it's not my line, for a few years: my time here is short. What can I do most beautifully? And, honestly, working with Mike is a beautiful thing. We have so much fun. We have our own little writers' room. We just go back in forth on the phone, or on zoom. And that's what happens with Jane Smith "The Hamptons Lawyer."
You can read an excerpt, and purchase the book, below.
The CBS New York Book Club focuses on books connected to the Tri-State Area in their plots and/or authors. The books may contain adult themes.
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From the publisher:
Undefeated criminal defense attorney Jane Smith—known as the Hamptons Lawyer—never fails to make her case.
The Hamptons on Long Island is known for its beautiful beaches, its luxury lifestyle—and its exclusive legal advice.
When Jane Smith takes on a famous celebrity client, she's armed and ready: with brilliant arguments, hard evidence—and two Glocks.
Yet she's chased down, shot at, and risks contempt of court. That's when mounting a legal defense turns into self-defense.Knowing every day in court could be her last, she's a survivor. For no
James Patterson lives in Westchester County and Florida. Mike Lupica lives in New York.
"The Hamptons Lawyer" by James Patterson & Mike Lupica (ThriftBooks) $22
ONE
JIMMY CUNNIFF AND I are inside the shooting range at the Maidstone Gun Club a little after seven in the morning. Both former NYPD cops, I'm now a criminal defense attorney, he's my investigator and indispensable right-hand man, in addition to being the best friend I've ever had, or maybe anybody has ever had.
Like me, he's also a survivor. At least for now.
It wasn't so terribly long ago that we both survived a late-night shootout that turned the Walking Dunes of Montauk, out near land's end on eastern Long Island, into the OK Corral. One of the shooters somehow managed to get away. The other wasn't quite as lucky.
Jimmy and I aren't here at Maidstone Gun getting ready for the next time. Neither one of us wants a next time, even though way too many people have been shooting—at both of us—since I began defending a local real estate guy named Rob Jacobson accused of committing his first triple homicide.
Yeah, that's right.
His first.
Of two.
As we get ready to begin today's competition, I am singing the old Aerosmith song "Janie's Got a Gun."
"Janie's got a gun, her whole world's come undone . . ."
"Well, maybe not her whole world," Jimmy adds. "Just this little corner of it."
"You continue to forget something, Cunniff," I say. "I never lose."
"Well, not on the big things."
"You mean like cancer?"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean."
"To be determined," I tell him.
"Shut up and shoot," he says.
As the leadoff shooter, I step back from the plates and wait for Jimmy to start the clock.
"When cops miss what they're aiming at," Jimmy says as he sets the timer, "they might hit grandma by mistake."
"Or maybe, say, a client?" I ask him, grinning.
"Don't give me any ideas about that bottom-feeder we're defending," he says.
I hear the timer beep and start firing away.
Six for six.
They all go down.
I want everything in my life to be this easy. Aim and fire.
I want to stop feeling the way I've felt for the past eight months, that I'm the one with the target on my back.
*****
One Week Later
BRIGID CALLS JIMMY TO give him the heads-up that Jane is coming home from the cancer treatment center in Switzerland a day early, and Jimmy tells her he'll go pick her up at JFK.
"How's she doing?" he asks. "I've been trying to leave her alone while they get her started on the juice."
"So far, so good," Brigid says. "Everybody's very optimistic."
"After just a few days?" Jimmy asks.
"That's what they're saying," Brigid says.
Jimmy says, "You know, you're not nearly as good a liar as your sister is."
"I don't know what you mean by that, Jimmy," Brigid says.
"My ass you don't," he says. "I was born at night, kid. Just not last night."
He's waiting for Jane when she comes walking out of the United terminal.
Jimmy grins at her before taking her bag.
"You look like s***," he says.
"I'm going to write off your rudeness to jet lag." Jane kisses him on the cheek. "Oh, wait. I'm the one with jet lag."
His partner does most of the talking as they make their way out of the airport. Jimmy doesn't respond, but his hands are tighter than usual on the steering wheel, and he knows it's not just because of the traffic.
"I don't want to hear more goddamn small talk!" Jimmy snaps. "I want to hear about you."
"Whoa," Jane says. "I know this sounds like a question you should probably be asking me. But are you okay?"
"Are you?" he asks.
"All things considered, yeah," she says. "The good news is that because of the drugs I'm taking, I don't have to do another round of chemo. Bottom line? My prognosis is a lot better than when I went over there."
"Is that so?" Jimmy says.
Before Jane can answer, Jimmy yells, "Stop lying to me!"
*****
"WHOA," I QUIETLY SAY again to Jimmy Cunniff, who sounds more upset, and looks more upset, than he did the day I told him I had been diagnosed with cancer.
"When did I lie?"
"When you tried to put a smiley face on this shit and make me think you're getting better," he says, "when we both know you're not."
"You don't know that," I say.
"As a matter of fact, I do."
I wait now. I can always tell with him when there's more coming.
There is.
"I stopped to see Sam Wylie on my way to pick you up," he says. "At least I got the truth out of her."
"And what truth might that be, you don't mind me asking?"
"That this is last call for you," Jimmy Cunniff says. "And they're not going to know if these new drugs are working until they do." He pauses and then adds, "If they do."
We ride for a few minutes in a silence so thick it makes me want to open a window.
"Well," I finally say, "so much for my privacy rights."
"When I'm the private detective," he says, "they don't apply."
"Mind if we listen to some music before we change the subject?"
"Yeah, I do mind."
"Okay, be like that," I say, leaning forward a little so that, when he gives me a sideways glance, he can see that I'm smiling.
"Sometimes you forget I'm only like that," he says.
There is another long silence until Jimmy says, "Once and for all, you gotta tell your client to find another lawyer."
I lean forward even more, so he can see the big smile that has now crossed my face, just because there's not a thing in the world I can do to stop it.
"There is no other lawyer in his right mind who will take this case," I say.
From "The Hamptons Lawyer" by James Patterson & Mike Lupica. Copyright (c) 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company, a division of the Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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