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Allison Leotta
[edit]Allison Leotta | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Michigan, Detriot |
| Occupation | Lawyer, Author, Commentator |
| Education | Michigan State University (BS) Harvard University (JD) |
| Genre | Legal thriller, Crime fiction |
| Spouse | Michael Leotta |
| Children | 2 |
Allison Leotta is an American novelist, former prosecutor and blogger, best known for her popular legal crime thrillers. Her books have won various awards and have been placed on multiple best-seller lists. She has been dubbed the "female John Grisham" but has stated that she wishes John Grisham to be dubbed "the male Allison Leotta" in the future.
Leotta graduated from Michigan State University and Harvard Law School and worked as a federal prosecutor in Washington DC where she specialised in sex crimes, domestic violence and crimes against children. In 2011, she left the Justice Department to become an author full time, writing acclaimed novels such as Law of Attraction, Discretion, Speak of the Devil, A Good Killing, and The Last Good Girl. She currently has TV reviews being carried by the Huffington Post as well running a legal blog known as the Prime-Time Crime Review which the American Legal Association hailed as “one of the best legal blogs in America”.
Her first novel, Law of Attraction, was published in 2010, and is part of the critically acclaimed series about the fictional sex- crimes prosector, Anna Curtis. This has stemmed into a series of five books (listed above) being written evolving around Anna Curtis. Leotta has stated in interviews that she has drawn inspiration from her previous legal experiences to write her novels and attributes their success to her first hand experience as a prosecutor.
Early Life
[edit]Leotta, was born in Michigan, Detriot. Her father worked as a federal prosecutor which greatly influenced Leotta to follow in his footsteps.
As a child, Leotta always had an interest in becoming a prosecutor, due to the stories constantly told to her by her father. She then went on to attend James Madison College at Michigan State where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, then Harvard Law School to receive a law degree. After law school, she then clerked for Judge Algenon Marbley, who is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. She then ventured onto the Justice Department through the DOJ Honours Program, where she specialised in consumer litigation and consumer fraud cases.
Career
[edit]Law Career
[edit]After graduating from law school, Leotta joined the U.S's Attorney's Office in D.C in 2003. She was a federal prosecutor in the district, starting off in appellate then continuing on to specialise in misdemeanor domestic violence. She then continued onto general felonies, where she worked on drug and gun cases, as well as crimes against children.She then continued onto felony domestic violence cases. Currently, she holds a senior post in the sex crimes section of the U.S's Attorney's Office and continues to work as both a prosecutor and a writer.
Writing Career
[edit]Novel Writing
[edit]Due to always being immersed in the complexities of human behaviour, which included tragedies as well as stories of immense courage and heroism that she had to deal with everyday as a sex crimes prosector, Leotta started to become inspired to write her own book, and this passion only increased once she got pregnant. "When I got pregnant, a weird sort of biological clock went off. I realised that if I was ever going to write that novel, I had to do it now". Then from her real life experience from in office and in court, she started writing her first novel "Law of Attraction", with the motivation to inspire other lawyers to become prosecutors in order to protect their community from predators and help victims heal. Her first and subsequent novels have all been under the publisher Simon and Schuster and centre around a main character named Anna Curtis, who is a rookie prosecutor who goes through similar experiences Leotta herself has in dealing with victims and cases in law. Before the novels were published, the books had to be reviewed by the people in the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Main Justice. This process took about four months to ensure nothing in her book violated Department of Justice (DOJ) ethics rules or was a compromise to national security. After the approval of her manuscripts, Simon and Schuster then bought her book. Leotta has also stated not only from her law career she has drawn inspiration, but she has also been inspired by the authors such as Jane Austen, John Grisham and Scott Turow as well as The Wire (an american crime drama series). The novel Discretion, which opens with an escort being murdered in a congressman’s Capitol hideaway was in fact inspired by the DC Madame case as well as the numerous prostitutes prosecuted by Leotta. She also is on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America.
Online Works
[edit]Leotta runs a blog called the Prime-Time Crime Review which was named one of the best legal blogs in American by the American Bar Association. She is also a contributor to the Huffington Post where she is in charge of reality checking television crime dramas. She has also provided legal commentary for well known news outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, PBS and Reuters TV.
Personal Life
[edit]Leotta lives outside Washington D.C with her husband Michael Leotta, the ex Appellate Chief at the Maryland U.S Attorney's Office. The couple have two children together.
Awards and honours
[edit]- Michigan Notable Book of the Year 2017 (The Last Good Girl)
- "Best of the Best Summer Books" by O, The Oprah Magazine (A Good Killing)
- "Best of the Year" from Strand Magazine
- "Best of the Year" from Romance reviews Magazine
- "Best of the Year" from Suspense Magazine
Bibliography
[edit]A complete listing of works by Allison Leotta.
Novels
[edit]- Law of Attraction (2010)
- Discretion (2012)
- Speak of the Devil (2013)
- A Good Killing (2015)
- The Last Good Girl (2016)