October 6, 2003

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

Some novelists draw inspiration for their stories from their friends, family or current events. Andrew S. McAleer was inspired by none other than Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. MLW is mentioned in the acknowledgements section of the Lexington criminal defense attorney's latest novel, "Double Endorsement."

McAleer thanks his mentor Lexington lawyer Norman N. Connolly, for insisting that he read Lawyers Weekly. "[A]n arduous chore, that ultimately inspired the following yam," he wrote.

Arduous chore?

"That was tongue-incheek," McAleer quickly explains of his goodnatured jab at Connolly, who used to lecture McAleer on the importance of keeping up with the law. McAleer confirms that his novel is indeed based in part on a case story that he read in Lawyers Weekly last year.

The matter involved a claim by a life insurance beneficiary who was denied benefits after it appeared the insurance application had been filled out incorrectly. (See "Claim Of Fraud Didn't Stop Policyholder's Suit," Oct. 21, 2002.)

While his story may not center on the legal aspects of the decision, McAleer did draw inspiration from the fact that a nurse performed the pre-contract medical exam.

"I asked myself, how could a nurse get herself into trouble — more criminally than civilly — and that was kind of the genesis of the idea," he recalls.

McAleer says he also looked to the people and places in his own life in creating the book's settings and characters.

For example, the story involves a "private eye" who works out of an office in Arlington Heights — not by coincidence the first place that McAleer hung a shingle as a lawyer.

"I wanted the main character to be in an area I was familiar with," says the writer-lawyer. "Having the city on one side and the country on the other side, he's a mercurial character who can relate with both city and country folk."

The 60-something female lawyer who plays a prominent role in "Double Endorsement" also was inspired locally, but not by an attorney. "She's modeled after my father," McAleer says, noting that his dad is a retired Boston College professor. "She's from a different generation."

McAleer says he has always been a fan of the "private eye" genre, citing such local authors as Dennis Lehane and Jeremiah F. Healy III, another Boston lawyer-turned-author.

While "Double Endorsement" may be McAleer's first "private eye" novel, it's not his first writing endeavor. The Lexington lawyer actually has a prior novel centered on a small-town lawyer called "Appearance of Counsel."

And "Double Endorsement" probably won't be his last; McAleer's latest effort is another "private eye" thriller but with a different cast of characters. Assuming a publishing house picks it up, McAleer says he has historian Doris Kearns Goodwill's "jacket endorsement" ready to go.

"Double Endorsement" is available at Spencer's Mystery Bookshop on Newbury Street in Boston, or at Waldenbooks and Sundial Bookstore in Lexington.