Mari Man — Jonathan Schwartz

Marina del Rey attorney Tom McGuire must defend his client against a charge of carjacking and murder, rescue a proctologist-turned-plastic-surgeon, and battle with a government administrator of the Federal Witness Protection Program. Tom also runs into a modern-day Indian tribe that inhabits a high-rise office building, and some militant environmentalists who have unique methods of combating a Malibu real estate development. The action is set in and around Marina del Rey, California, with excursions to Topanga Canyon and Catalina Island's tiny settlement, Isthmus Cove. Also included are confrontations at sea between Tom's aging Chris-Craft and a Mafia offshore racer. Throughout, attorney McGuire's description of the action that takes place in this novel is a sense of humor that could only come from a person who has performed standup comedy, as author Jonathan Schwartz has.