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City Attorney's Office #1
City Attorney's Office: Book One: Professional Camouflage
Above the down and out city, lawyers toil day and night. Working-class roots keep Maria humble. A one-ton chip on his shoulder keeps Ben discontent. Expectations keep Erin unfulfilled.
144 pages, Paperback
Published March 12, 2024
9 people are currently reading
3743 people want to read
About the author
Christopher J. Stockwell
8 books47 followers"Why do you write?" She asked me.
"Why do you fuckin' care," is what my bestie Jack would say. He's always inside me trying to push his way out. When people take a tone, or give me orders, Jack bristles. Chris has a wife, kids, and a mortgage, so most of the time, Chris is charged with keeping Jack in check. Jack is why I write. The world moved on without Jack. His music scene is nothing but burnt ash from the campfire the night before. Jack's city doesn't exist anymore. It might as well be called Seattle 2.0.
I'm a lawyer, a former prosecutor. When I put on a suit, you can't see me, or should I say you see my mask. Who am I? I'm the counterculture hiding in plain sight. Punk rock gave me a worldview, and I bring that worldview into society every time I speak in a courtroom or you flip the page of one of my books.
Why do I write, because after all these years, Jack and I are stilled pissed off at the world and everyone in it. And we've still got something to say about it.
"Why do you fuckin' care," is what my bestie Jack would say. He's always inside me trying to push his way out. When people take a tone, or give me orders, Jack bristles. Chris has a wife, kids, and a mortgage, so most of the time, Chris is charged with keeping Jack in check. Jack is why I write. The world moved on without Jack. His music scene is nothing but burnt ash from the campfire the night before. Jack's city doesn't exist anymore. It might as well be called Seattle 2.0.
I'm a lawyer, a former prosecutor. When I put on a suit, you can't see me, or should I say you see my mask. Who am I? I'm the counterculture hiding in plain sight. Punk rock gave me a worldview, and I bring that worldview into society every time I speak in a courtroom or you flip the page of one of my books.
Why do I write, because after all these years, Jack and I are stilled pissed off at the world and everyone in it. And we've still got something to say about it.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 20, 2024
I don't know why they let your review your own books, but clearly this book gets five stars from me. What else!
February 9, 2025
Thanks to the author for a free e-copy of this book. Sadly, whenever I read a book that’s cleverly written, I find it difficult to limit the number of quotes I include in my review. I just want other people to be able to appreciate what I did.
As with his other series, Down and Out in Seattle, this one made me laugh. A lot. Even the protagonist of that series shows up, though only peripherally. Ben’s older brother, Mike (now deceased from a drug overdose) was best friends with Jack. And I’m pretty sure I read about “the Korean lady’s candy store” in that book, too. The narration in this book is similar, as well, in that the author occasionally has Ben interject some kind of comment. But for the most part, the narrator tells the story in third person. Sometimes, it switches to Maria’s POV—we’ll introduce her later. The author makes so many good points in terms of social commentary, mostly the legal system, but also social stratification, upward mobility, and conformity.
We follow Ben from when he’s a tween until he’s in his late twenties. He’s clearly, a go-getter, but also a slacker when it comes to school. His lower-middle-class roots are Bonafide, with an electrician father, Big Ben, his mother (I don’t know what she does), and his little sister Lisa, a consolation baby after Mike died. Mostly, we’re exposed to Big Ben, a forbidding figure who obviously loves his family very much. When Ben graduates from high school, Big Ben gives him a restored Barracuda that he’s been working on for months, truly a labor of love. Then, he sternly orders Ben to take care of it and not do anything stupid.
Ben describes seeing his brother for one of the last times in this way: “The last time Ben saw him alive, at that Sunday dinner, he was a pale, gaunt caricature of himself. But not really a caricature. Caricatures exaggerate or poke fun in a good-natured way at someone's unique physical characteristics. A caricature of Mike at that point would have looked more like one of those Nazi Holocaust-era propaganda cartoons denoting Jews as dirty, sickly, and alien. There was nothing fun or light about Mike's appearance by that point. Mike's caricature could have been American government propaganda denoting the dangers of crack cocaine. And unlike the Nazi propaganda, the American propaganda would have been accurate.”
Sometime around middle school, Ben realizes he doesn’t want the life that’s on offer in Tacoma, and he figures out he needs an education. “School wasn't there for people like him to succeed. It was the appearance of social mobility, but there was no incentive for schools to produce upwardly mobile people in percentages greater than society's need for them. Society needed only a small percentage of people to be educated and capable. In fact, society needed most people to stay ignorant and lazy. His middle school needed him to stay right where society had placed him. His middle school needed to produce academic failures in much greater numbers than they did academic successes. By fucking around in school, he was doing exactly what he was designed to do, which was to stay put. To leave the socioeconomic strata he'd been born into was society's nightmare. To succeed in spite of overwhelming opposition was true defiance. That Monday, Ben did something that he'd never done before. He went to school and turned in a homework assignment on time.” And thus begins Ben’s journey toward college and getting out of Tacoma.
Ben focuses on getting good grades and attends the University of Washington. There, he continues to get good grades to get into law school. At that point, he realizes that grades no longer matter, so long as he has a law degree and passes the BAR. So, he becomes a slacker again.
The author describes the differences between Seattle, where Ben goes to college, and Tacoma, where Ben grew up and continues to drive home regularly. “To Seattle, Tacoma was like having a leg that often refused to cooperate and move in conjunction with the rest of the body. To Tacoma, Seattle was a nursery school full of whining toddlers who needed rescue from a burning building. For Seattle, it couldn't be rid of Tacoma, because even a leg that at times refused to cooperate was still better than no leg at all. For Tacoma, leaving whining toddlers to their own devices in a burning structure was unconscionable, even if you wanted to smack the shit out of every last one of those bratty little snot machines.”
Ben has trouble fitting in, both in Seattle and in Tacoma. He imagines an in-between place. “Because he couldn't be one or the other, eventually he became both without really being either." The connecting line was the I-5, and Ben contemplated whether he could live there. "I mean, I must fit in there, because I-5 is nowhere, at least that in-between part of it was. Sometimes I think there should be a little hammock that exists slightly out of this dimension, just a little room that I can slide into where no one else can go except me. If I don't fit cleanly into this world, it's only fair that the universe has a little pocket dimension where only I can go.”
In passing, the narrator mentions that Ben once brought a girl named Jennie home for Thanksgiving during his freshman year. Here, Ben jumps in, “Every other girl on planet Earth is named Jennifer, so kudos to her for mixing it up with her novel adaptation on an otherwise played out name.”
After college, Ben stumbles into a job in the city attorney’s office. “Seattle Municipal Tower—’SMT is what we called it’— was a huge biracial penis penetrating the Seattle skyline. It was clearly biracial because it was too dark to be a white guy, too light to be a black guy. Maybe it could be Middle Eastern, Latino, Asian, who knows. Maybe it was a testament to Seattle's newfound commitment to racial diversity in the city's ruling white patriarchy. Unfortunately, for the ladies, there were no gigantic vaginas of any skin tone in the city until the new football stadium was completed in 2020. Unfortunately, they demolished the Kingdome to build it, so in gaining a vagina, the city also simultaneously lost a gigantic boob.”
We also meet Maria Deloera, a daughter of Mexican immigrants, with a largely absent father, who was in a punk rock band for a while, until ending up in the same city attorney’s office, although she was placed in the domestic violence unit. Ben feels like he might know her, and as it turns out, he saw her band play live many years ago. For most of the book, they have nothing to do with one another. There was an interaction, however, that made me laugh. Prior to work, Maria was sitting in her car smoking a joint. Suddenly, Ben appeared at her window and knocked. When she rolled the window down, he said, “Did you bring enough for the whole class?”
Ben and Maria work for the prosecutor’s office. Another office has public defenders, and for some reason, the city tends to choose Ivy League out-of-towners for those roles. For the most part, these departments intensely dislike one another, in no small part because they play adversaries most of the time. But apparently, Seattle has so much white guilt that most of the defendants walk free. Even the judges are anti-prosecutor. In one scene, Maria gets so disgusted by a judge’s unwillingness to issue a restraining order against an abuser that she says this, “While I'm sure that Yale Law School gave Ms. Spencer over there a great deal of first-hand experience with the sort of adversity that people of color face in the criminal justice system, I should remind the court that the victim in this case is a person of color, as am I. The victim doesn't have any assault convictions, but your whiteness—I mean your honor—and Ms. Karen Snobbington Esquire over there are correct. Can we all just give the defendant a big hand for only being convicted of beating the shit out of his girlfriend twice!” Since it's so difficult for the office to find people willing to work there, she has little doubt there will be no repercussions.
No one seems to like the city prosecutors. In fact, there’s one situation that I thought was great, in which Ben pees on the pants and shoes of Tim, a particularly cocky public defender. Since all of the judges are so inclined to favor defendants, Ben “...knew Tim wouldn’t do anything. ‘What on Earth could he possibly do? Is he going to call the Seattle Police Department's non-emergency line and say, I'm a public defender, and this prosecutor peed on my shoes several months ago? No, Tim couldn't do that. He may have warned a few of his Confederates to steer clear of Ben, but broadcasting the incident to a wide audience would only serve to make him look flaccid. Besides, any cop taking that report would piss themselves laughing while writing it. Also, as a criminal defense attorney, Tim knew it was an unprovable case.”
Oddly, even the overdose death of his older brother does not cause Ben to avoid substances and alcohol. His family doesn't either. In one part of the story, he tries to unlock his car while drunk. The narrator refers to his difficulty as “floating lock and key syndrome.” Once he gets into the car, he discovers that “The ignition was a little easier to peg. They aren't flush with the surface like a door lock, and the raised part is like a little cradle to help you get your key in. Ben figured they must make the ignition like that so you can get your car started when you're drunk.” Ben finds a sympathetic soul in Maria who is willing to get just as high as he is. When her Thanksgiving plans fall through, he invites her to come home with him, which is especially funny because the girl who thinks she’s dating him and has been insisting she wants to come, is not invited. That series of events is quite amusing on its own. They get absolutely trashed at his parents' house and drive back to Seattle. His plan is to drop her off and drive home, hopefully, not to see Erin—who had been stalking him prior to Thanksgiving to insinuate herself into his plans for the day. As Maria gets out of the car, she turns back and asks if he’s coming. And that’s where the book ends.
I’ve never been a fan of cliffhangers, so this annoyed me. I mean, it’s not like anyone’s in danger and I don’t know if they’re going to survive. But the story is incomplete, and I find that so frustrating. I’m just not very patient. However, I will say I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I love the writing style and Stockwell’s sense of humor. He paints a vivid picture of characters living on the outside of polite society, making things work for themselves. Unlike Jack, in Down & Out in Seattle, it’s not a tragic story, so that makes this one much less intense. But we still see much of the gritty side of being poor in a place where most people are too busy to notice or try to help. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series; I recommend it.
As with his other series, Down and Out in Seattle, this one made me laugh. A lot. Even the protagonist of that series shows up, though only peripherally. Ben’s older brother, Mike (now deceased from a drug overdose) was best friends with Jack. And I’m pretty sure I read about “the Korean lady’s candy store” in that book, too. The narration in this book is similar, as well, in that the author occasionally has Ben interject some kind of comment. But for the most part, the narrator tells the story in third person. Sometimes, it switches to Maria’s POV—we’ll introduce her later. The author makes so many good points in terms of social commentary, mostly the legal system, but also social stratification, upward mobility, and conformity.
We follow Ben from when he’s a tween until he’s in his late twenties. He’s clearly, a go-getter, but also a slacker when it comes to school. His lower-middle-class roots are Bonafide, with an electrician father, Big Ben, his mother (I don’t know what she does), and his little sister Lisa, a consolation baby after Mike died. Mostly, we’re exposed to Big Ben, a forbidding figure who obviously loves his family very much. When Ben graduates from high school, Big Ben gives him a restored Barracuda that he’s been working on for months, truly a labor of love. Then, he sternly orders Ben to take care of it and not do anything stupid.
Ben describes seeing his brother for one of the last times in this way: “The last time Ben saw him alive, at that Sunday dinner, he was a pale, gaunt caricature of himself. But not really a caricature. Caricatures exaggerate or poke fun in a good-natured way at someone's unique physical characteristics. A caricature of Mike at that point would have looked more like one of those Nazi Holocaust-era propaganda cartoons denoting Jews as dirty, sickly, and alien. There was nothing fun or light about Mike's appearance by that point. Mike's caricature could have been American government propaganda denoting the dangers of crack cocaine. And unlike the Nazi propaganda, the American propaganda would have been accurate.”
Sometime around middle school, Ben realizes he doesn’t want the life that’s on offer in Tacoma, and he figures out he needs an education. “School wasn't there for people like him to succeed. It was the appearance of social mobility, but there was no incentive for schools to produce upwardly mobile people in percentages greater than society's need for them. Society needed only a small percentage of people to be educated and capable. In fact, society needed most people to stay ignorant and lazy. His middle school needed him to stay right where society had placed him. His middle school needed to produce academic failures in much greater numbers than they did academic successes. By fucking around in school, he was doing exactly what he was designed to do, which was to stay put. To leave the socioeconomic strata he'd been born into was society's nightmare. To succeed in spite of overwhelming opposition was true defiance. That Monday, Ben did something that he'd never done before. He went to school and turned in a homework assignment on time.” And thus begins Ben’s journey toward college and getting out of Tacoma.
Ben focuses on getting good grades and attends the University of Washington. There, he continues to get good grades to get into law school. At that point, he realizes that grades no longer matter, so long as he has a law degree and passes the BAR. So, he becomes a slacker again.
The author describes the differences between Seattle, where Ben goes to college, and Tacoma, where Ben grew up and continues to drive home regularly. “To Seattle, Tacoma was like having a leg that often refused to cooperate and move in conjunction with the rest of the body. To Tacoma, Seattle was a nursery school full of whining toddlers who needed rescue from a burning building. For Seattle, it couldn't be rid of Tacoma, because even a leg that at times refused to cooperate was still better than no leg at all. For Tacoma, leaving whining toddlers to their own devices in a burning structure was unconscionable, even if you wanted to smack the shit out of every last one of those bratty little snot machines.”
Ben has trouble fitting in, both in Seattle and in Tacoma. He imagines an in-between place. “Because he couldn't be one or the other, eventually he became both without really being either." The connecting line was the I-5, and Ben contemplated whether he could live there. "I mean, I must fit in there, because I-5 is nowhere, at least that in-between part of it was. Sometimes I think there should be a little hammock that exists slightly out of this dimension, just a little room that I can slide into where no one else can go except me. If I don't fit cleanly into this world, it's only fair that the universe has a little pocket dimension where only I can go.”
In passing, the narrator mentions that Ben once brought a girl named Jennie home for Thanksgiving during his freshman year. Here, Ben jumps in, “Every other girl on planet Earth is named Jennifer, so kudos to her for mixing it up with her novel adaptation on an otherwise played out name.”
After college, Ben stumbles into a job in the city attorney’s office. “Seattle Municipal Tower—’SMT is what we called it’— was a huge biracial penis penetrating the Seattle skyline. It was clearly biracial because it was too dark to be a white guy, too light to be a black guy. Maybe it could be Middle Eastern, Latino, Asian, who knows. Maybe it was a testament to Seattle's newfound commitment to racial diversity in the city's ruling white patriarchy. Unfortunately, for the ladies, there were no gigantic vaginas of any skin tone in the city until the new football stadium was completed in 2020. Unfortunately, they demolished the Kingdome to build it, so in gaining a vagina, the city also simultaneously lost a gigantic boob.”
We also meet Maria Deloera, a daughter of Mexican immigrants, with a largely absent father, who was in a punk rock band for a while, until ending up in the same city attorney’s office, although she was placed in the domestic violence unit. Ben feels like he might know her, and as it turns out, he saw her band play live many years ago. For most of the book, they have nothing to do with one another. There was an interaction, however, that made me laugh. Prior to work, Maria was sitting in her car smoking a joint. Suddenly, Ben appeared at her window and knocked. When she rolled the window down, he said, “Did you bring enough for the whole class?”
Ben and Maria work for the prosecutor’s office. Another office has public defenders, and for some reason, the city tends to choose Ivy League out-of-towners for those roles. For the most part, these departments intensely dislike one another, in no small part because they play adversaries most of the time. But apparently, Seattle has so much white guilt that most of the defendants walk free. Even the judges are anti-prosecutor. In one scene, Maria gets so disgusted by a judge’s unwillingness to issue a restraining order against an abuser that she says this, “While I'm sure that Yale Law School gave Ms. Spencer over there a great deal of first-hand experience with the sort of adversity that people of color face in the criminal justice system, I should remind the court that the victim in this case is a person of color, as am I. The victim doesn't have any assault convictions, but your whiteness—I mean your honor—and Ms. Karen Snobbington Esquire over there are correct. Can we all just give the defendant a big hand for only being convicted of beating the shit out of his girlfriend twice!” Since it's so difficult for the office to find people willing to work there, she has little doubt there will be no repercussions.
No one seems to like the city prosecutors. In fact, there’s one situation that I thought was great, in which Ben pees on the pants and shoes of Tim, a particularly cocky public defender. Since all of the judges are so inclined to favor defendants, Ben “...knew Tim wouldn’t do anything. ‘What on Earth could he possibly do? Is he going to call the Seattle Police Department's non-emergency line and say, I'm a public defender, and this prosecutor peed on my shoes several months ago? No, Tim couldn't do that. He may have warned a few of his Confederates to steer clear of Ben, but broadcasting the incident to a wide audience would only serve to make him look flaccid. Besides, any cop taking that report would piss themselves laughing while writing it. Also, as a criminal defense attorney, Tim knew it was an unprovable case.”
Oddly, even the overdose death of his older brother does not cause Ben to avoid substances and alcohol. His family doesn't either. In one part of the story, he tries to unlock his car while drunk. The narrator refers to his difficulty as “floating lock and key syndrome.” Once he gets into the car, he discovers that “The ignition was a little easier to peg. They aren't flush with the surface like a door lock, and the raised part is like a little cradle to help you get your key in. Ben figured they must make the ignition like that so you can get your car started when you're drunk.” Ben finds a sympathetic soul in Maria who is willing to get just as high as he is. When her Thanksgiving plans fall through, he invites her to come home with him, which is especially funny because the girl who thinks she’s dating him and has been insisting she wants to come, is not invited. That series of events is quite amusing on its own. They get absolutely trashed at his parents' house and drive back to Seattle. His plan is to drop her off and drive home, hopefully, not to see Erin—who had been stalking him prior to Thanksgiving to insinuate herself into his plans for the day. As Maria gets out of the car, she turns back and asks if he’s coming. And that’s where the book ends.
I’ve never been a fan of cliffhangers, so this annoyed me. I mean, it’s not like anyone’s in danger and I don’t know if they’re going to survive. But the story is incomplete, and I find that so frustrating. I’m just not very patient. However, I will say I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I love the writing style and Stockwell’s sense of humor. He paints a vivid picture of characters living on the outside of polite society, making things work for themselves. Unlike Jack, in Down & Out in Seattle, it’s not a tragic story, so that makes this one much less intense. But we still see much of the gritty side of being poor in a place where most people are too busy to notice or try to help. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series; I recommend it.
December 31, 2024
This book is about lawyer life in Seattle, labouring 24/7 and general workaholic life shenanigans, but it is also supposedly a romance novel with satirical and snarky comments, to express the edginess of the main character. The edginess that comes about due to his working class background, the way that he was raised, and why he personally feels like he doesn’t belong, like he has conned someone to get the job, but very much on purpose: he donned professional camouflage as he terms it.
This book started off strong, but ended up disappointing. Initially there was a good balance between the more explicit comments, it was amusing and served as the narrator’s distinct voice. That being said there was a somewhat bizarre mix of quotes and narration, so it was not entirely clear who exactly was telling the story, and why there were quotation marks if the main character said these things himself? Quoting himself?
But as the novel progressed the balance between amusing and appropriate fell off, and it felt like the protagonist was just being sarcastic for the sake of it, and the result was no longer funny. There’s a very long description comparing their tower to a male reproductive organ, and the humour was just not for me.
Also, as a law student myself, there was an expectation of relatability or points of similarity. Perhaps because the protagonist is donning camouflage, but his commentary made it hard to don his viewpoint, and see this as relatable even if there were points where the novel closely mirrored life. The romance and its development itself was slightly artificial and stretched, so the short novel ended up being a strangely peculiar blend of legal fiction with quasi-Romance that hates being legal fiction. There was also not many lessons to take away from the story, even though it markets itself as somewhat of a novel bringing advice to surviving this life. Overall, not for me.
This book started off strong, but ended up disappointing. Initially there was a good balance between the more explicit comments, it was amusing and served as the narrator’s distinct voice. That being said there was a somewhat bizarre mix of quotes and narration, so it was not entirely clear who exactly was telling the story, and why there were quotation marks if the main character said these things himself? Quoting himself?
But as the novel progressed the balance between amusing and appropriate fell off, and it felt like the protagonist was just being sarcastic for the sake of it, and the result was no longer funny. There’s a very long description comparing their tower to a male reproductive organ, and the humour was just not for me.
Also, as a law student myself, there was an expectation of relatability or points of similarity. Perhaps because the protagonist is donning camouflage, but his commentary made it hard to don his viewpoint, and see this as relatable even if there were points where the novel closely mirrored life. The romance and its development itself was slightly artificial and stretched, so the short novel ended up being a strangely peculiar blend of legal fiction with quasi-Romance that hates being legal fiction. There was also not many lessons to take away from the story, even though it markets itself as somewhat of a novel bringing advice to surviving this life. Overall, not for me.
May 29, 2024
An offbeat workplace romance written by a guy?
I guess I'm used to reading male characters in books like this as the love interest portrayed from the female author's perspective. Ben is the main character, and he's also sort of a jerk. The love triangle is interesting. This book also has tie in with Stockwell's down and out in Seattle books, overlapping characters etc. Because Stockwell is a lawyer, the legal stuff comes off genuine, and because of his counterculture views, the satire is a little sharp, maybe too much for some readers.
I'm still partial to these sorts of relationship novels that are written by women, but it's interesting to see the love interest as main character, and presented the way guys actually are, and by a guy.
I guess I'm used to reading male characters in books like this as the love interest portrayed from the female author's perspective. Ben is the main character, and he's also sort of a jerk. The love triangle is interesting. This book also has tie in with Stockwell's down and out in Seattle books, overlapping characters etc. Because Stockwell is a lawyer, the legal stuff comes off genuine, and because of his counterculture views, the satire is a little sharp, maybe too much for some readers.
I'm still partial to these sorts of relationship novels that are written by women, but it's interesting to see the love interest as main character, and presented the way guys actually are, and by a guy.
June 17, 2024
This book dives headfirst into the chaotic world of Seattle's legal eagles with a satirical edge that keeps you hooked from start to finish.
Ben, Maria, and Erin navigate not just courtroom drama but also tangled personal lives in a narrative that's as sharp-witted as it is entertaining. Stockwell's portrayal of the city and its characters feels authentic and alive, with enough twists and turns to keep any reader engaged.
If you're looking for a romance novel that's not afraid to challenge norms and inject humor into the legal grind, this is it. Plus, the ties to Stockwell's other works add a layer of depth that fans will appreciate. A fun and insightful read for anyone craving something a bit different in the romance genre.
Ben, Maria, and Erin navigate not just courtroom drama but also tangled personal lives in a narrative that's as sharp-witted as it is entertaining. Stockwell's portrayal of the city and its characters feels authentic and alive, with enough twists and turns to keep any reader engaged.
If you're looking for a romance novel that's not afraid to challenge norms and inject humor into the legal grind, this is it. Plus, the ties to Stockwell's other works add a layer of depth that fans will appreciate. A fun and insightful read for anyone craving something a bit different in the romance genre.
June 25, 2025
I was not expecting to vibe this hard with a book about office politics, but here we are. This thing is wild in the best way possible—like, yeah it’s got the legal drama and city politics stuff, but it’s all wrapped up in this sharp, absurd humor that hits way too close to home sometimes. The characters are a whole mood: Ben’s simmering frustration, Maria’s quiet strength, Erin’s existential career spiral… it all just works.
There’s a scene with an elevator that cracked me up way more than it should’ve, and somehow even in the chaos, there are these small emotional gut-punches that really sneak up on you. Honestly, it’s like watching a clever, messy sitcom but with real stakes. Totally refreshing. I flew through it.
There’s a scene with an elevator that cracked me up way more than it should’ve, and somehow even in the chaos, there are these small emotional gut-punches that really sneak up on you. Honestly, it’s like watching a clever, messy sitcom but with real stakes. Totally refreshing. I flew through it.
June 30, 2025
City Attorney’s Office plunges you into the chaotic, humor-filled world of a Seattle law office where the drama extends far beyond the courtroom. The characters, each wrestling with their own personal and professional struggles, feel refreshingly real and complex. The blend of satire and absurdity makes the workplace dynamics entertaining while offering a sharp, witty look at ambition and social expectations.
What stood out most was how the story balances its comedic edge with genuine emotional moments, making the characters’ flaws and conflicts both relatable and compelling. The sharp dialogue and unexpected twists kept me engaged, making this more than just a typical office romance—it’s a clever commentary wrapped in a story full of sparks and tension.
What stood out most was how the story balances its comedic edge with genuine emotional moments, making the characters’ flaws and conflicts both relatable and compelling. The sharp dialogue and unexpected twists kept me engaged, making this more than just a typical office romance—it’s a clever commentary wrapped in a story full of sparks and tension.
December 31, 2024
Great listen. I got it on Audible, and listened to it over the holiday break. The author is clearly an attorney, and the bio says he was a prosecutor I think, so hearing a lawyer satirize a profession he is actually a part of is a bit of a peek behind the curtain.
The love triangle was well written, if a bit rough, but at the end of the day, it's sort of a guy's story. It's a romance the way Fight Club was a romance. That is, there is a well-developed female lead character, but her angle is mostly subjugated to the nonsense the guy in the story is constantly pulling. That's about what I'd expect, so I thought it was great.
The love triangle was well written, if a bit rough, but at the end of the day, it's sort of a guy's story. It's a romance the way Fight Club was a romance. That is, there is a well-developed female lead character, but her angle is mostly subjugated to the nonsense the guy in the story is constantly pulling. That's about what I'd expect, so I thought it was great.
December 12, 2025
I’ve known people like these characters. That’s what stood out right away. The office politics, the quiet resentments, the way everyone wears a version of themselves just to get through the day. This book doesn’t romanticize legal work or office life. It exposes it, sometimes uncomfortably, often with dark humor. Ben’s inner voice rings especially true, especially the insecurity masked as competence. The writing trusts the reader and doesn’t explain itself to death. It’s sharp, cynical, and observant without trying to impress. If you’ve ever worked inside a system that slowly reshapes you, this will resonate.
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December 17, 2025I really enjoyed this first book in the series. Professional Camouflage feels grounded and realistic, especially in how it portrays office politics and the pressure of working in a city attorney’s office. The characters come across as believable, and the dialogue feels natural rather than overdone.
The story moves at a steady pace and keeps your interest without relying on nonstop twists. I liked how the legal side of the plot is balanced with personal and professional challenges, which makes the stakes feel real.
This works well as a series opener and left me interested in continuing with the next book. A solid read for anyone who enjoys realistic legal fiction.
The story moves at a steady pace and keeps your interest without relying on nonstop twists. I liked how the legal side of the plot is balanced with personal and professional challenges, which makes the stakes feel real.
This works well as a series opener and left me interested in continuing with the next book. A solid read for anyone who enjoys realistic legal fiction.
April 20, 2024
This book was an absolute page turner that keeps you engaged and guessing in a good way. Love the characters and the more realistic take and insights as to who actually ends up in your city’s prosecutor’s office than you typically see in novels about a attorneys, whether you feel good about that or not. I also loved the Seattle setting, which the author portrays so well, almost as it’s another character. And if you’re a fan of the Down and Out in Seattle and Tacoma series, you’ll appreciate the ties to that trilogy and Easter eggs throughout.
June 23, 2025
Satirical comedy
I was hooked from the start. Stockholm weaves between the past and the present to create well-rounded characters. Ben's story is both tragic and comical as he navigates his way through his self-imposed solitary existence. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
I was hooked from the start. Stockholm weaves between the past and the present to create well-rounded characters. Ben's story is both tragic and comical as he navigates his way through his self-imposed solitary existence. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
May 12, 2024
This book is unreadable. It’s filled with lengthy sentences interspersed with semi-colons, probably so the sentences aren’t run-on sentences. The first few chapters sound like one giant run-on incoherent thought.
I couldn’t make it through to find any semblance of a plot.
I couldn’t make it through to find any semblance of a plot.
June 20, 2025
This is a satirical, funny and well-crafted book about someone who has an unconventional relationship with law and legal work. This is not your typical courtroom drama, but a more wry and relatable book. The book honestly surprised me with its vividness and candor, would recommend checking it out.
July 1, 2025
Very good book!
This book was a fun surprise! It’s sharp, sarcastic, and not your typical legal drama. The humor is dry and smart, and the characters feel reel. I love the mix of satire, office chaos, and personal struggles. Definitely a quick, memorable read.
This book was a fun surprise! It’s sharp, sarcastic, and not your typical legal drama. The humor is dry and smart, and the characters feel reel. I love the mix of satire, office chaos, and personal struggles. Definitely a quick, memorable read.
May 30, 2024
Anarchy at the attorney's office. Badass! Punk rock!! Short and sweet, just like this review.
September 1, 2024
Okay! So, this book was super hard to finish, but in the end, I really did end up enjoying it. I found the book a bit confusing and didn’t fully understand where it was headed, which I think was due to the dual POV. However, it was interesting to read the background information on each of the characters' lives because they all had very dynamic childhoods. I also really liked the clever foreshadowing and the romance at the end of the book. I think book 2 would be an interesting read to see what will continue to happen in Ben and Maria’s lives.
Thank you for the copy as well!
Thank you for the copy as well!
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