Fairly Certain

Some cases are open and shut. This one was opened by a bathroom break and shut by bad luck.

Tommy Ferraro had one job: use the restroom at a gas station in Beecham, Alabama, and get back in the car. He was gone three minutes. In those three minutes, a man robbed Ricky's Fuel & Go at gunpoint, shot a local regular named Dale Richter, and ran. Tommy walked out of the bathroom into the aftermath - and then did the one thing that would look catastrophically bad in court.

He ran too.

With two unpaid bottles of water under his arm.

Now Tommy and his best friend Pete Kowalski - who just wanted to be in Georgia - are sitting in a Beecham County holding cell facing charges of robbery and murder in a state neither of them has ever set foot in before tonight. Tommy has one phone call. He uses it to call his mother. His mother calls the only lawyer she knows.

His cousin Vinnie.

Vincent A. Calabrese, Attorney at Law, operates out of an eleven-by-fourteen office on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, above a dry cleaner that is definitely a front for something. He passed the bar on his fifth attempt - in May. He opened his office in June. It is now late June. In six weeks of practice, his most significant legal achievement has been drafting a cease and desist letter about a neighbor's fence that his cousin Anthony still hasn't picked up.

Vinnie has never stood before a judge. He has never cross-examined a witness. He has never entered a plea, made a motion, or given an opening statement. He has never set foot in Alabama.

He leaves for Alabama in the morning.

Fairly Certain is a legal comedy about two kids from New Jersey who took the wrong exit off the interstate, and the Brooklyn lawyer who drives fourteen hours to save them - armed with five pages of handwritten notes, a criminal procedure textbook wedged between the car seat and the door, and an unshakeable belief that he can figure it out when he gets there.

It is also about Donna, Vinnie's fiancée of six years, who packs a practical duffel and comes anyway because Tommy is family and Vinnie is family and she has long since accepted that this is what her life looks like. It is about Boyd Calhoun, the Beecham County District Attorney, who has a 94% conviction rate and a photograph on his website that suggests he has never seriously entertained the possibility of losing. It is about a small Alabama town that has strong opinions about outsiders, and a courtroom that is about to get a lot more interesting.

The trial transcript excerpts that open each chapter tell you, from the very first page, that Vinnie does eventually make it to court - wearing a forest green suit, having arrived forty-seven minutes late, having confused the judge's signal to begin. What they don't tell you is how he gets there, or whether getting there is enough.

Fairly Certain is for readers who love the quick-witted energy of a classic screwball comedy, the underdog momentum of a courtroom thriller, and characters who are just competent enough to be dangerous. It sits comfortably alongside My Cousin Vinny, the novels of Carl Hiaasen, and anyone who has ever been absolutely certain they could handle a situation they were completely unprepared for.

Funny, warm, and surprisingly tense, Fairly Certain is a novel about the gap between confidence and ability - and what happens when, against all reasonable odds, love and stubbornness turn out to be better preparation than experience.