A salacious, hilarious novel profiling Los Angeles justice written by a Judge

Hidden Behind the Robe

Matt Graham

Matt Graham is a native son of the San Fernando Valley. A product of the Los Angeles public schools, he was the first in his immediate family to graduate college. Graham is married, a father of two, and a grandfather of four. Graham attended Cal State University, Northridge, and Loyola University School of Law School, before a ten-year stint as a state prosecutor. His improbable rise through the courts was the result of a work ethic rooted in the streets of Van Nuys. By the age of thirty, Graham had successfully argued cases in the United States and California Supreme Court. He presided over nearly four hundred criminal jury trials between 1985 and 2005. Hidden Behind the Robe, Graham’s first novel, is based on the stranger-than-fiction cases Graham observed during his legal career.

Back cover content: Matt Graham’s first novel, Hidden Behind the Robe, traverses unexplored and overlooked inner workings of the raunchy, salacious, often hilarious, behind the scenes happenings of Los Angeles justice while taking you on a tour of equally unexplored corners of the city of Los Angeles. Combining issues of privilege, race, and sexual misconduct, Hidden By the Robe is based on real cases observed during Matt Graham’s forty-three year career in the criminal courts providing a rare look at a complex and flawed criminal law system that could only have been written by a judge who has seen it all. Judge Charles Dunning is the reluctant manager of the Van Nuys courthouse, a building teeming with conspiring judges, oddballs, gossipers, and misfits who engage in salacious conduct. When Dunning launches an anonymous investigation into a complaint of sexual misconduct by Judge William Davis Hyde, he discovers the hard way that all the bad guys aren’t in the courthouse lockup. Judge Hyde learns of Dunning’s investigation, and to divert attention from his own troubles, he reveals a decades-old racist ruling made by Dunning early in his judicial career. Hyde stokes the controversy over Dunning’s ruling, which morphs into a national debate over racism in the criminal court system, with Dunning as the focus of attention. With Dunning’s career and the safety of his family in jeopardy, he forges ahead with his investigation of Hyde. These dueling conflicts result in a cat and mouse struggle between two legal powerhouses, with unexpected results on both ends. “THE SURPRISING AND OFTEN OUTRAGEOUS EVENTS IN HIDDEN BEHIND THE ROBE ARE A DELIGHT TO READ. MATT GRAHAM HAS CLEVERLY MIXED TIMELY ISSUES WITH ACCURATE DESCRIPTIONS OF COURT CASES IN A WAY RARELY CAPTURED FROM A JUDGE’S POINT OF VIEW. THIS WAS AN EASY READ I COULDN’T PUT DOWN.” –A.F., RETIRED COURT REPORTER “HIDDEN BY THE ROBE IS THE BEST COURTHOUSE THRILLER IN YEARS. THE INTRIGUE BETWEEN THE GOOD AND EVIL JUDGES BEGINS ON THE FIRST PAGE, AND NEVER GETS LOST. THE COURTROOM SCENES–SOME SERIOUS, SOME HILARIOUS–WERE PERFECTLY CRAFTED. I FELT LIKE I WAS IN THE COURTROOM, OBSERVING THE CASES UNFOLD.” –J.C., CONSUMER AFFAIRS ADVISOR “MATT GRAHAM HAS WRITTEN THE NEXT GREAT COURTHOUSE THRILLER, FILLED WITH INTRIGUE AND THE GALLOWS HUMOR OF THE CRIMINAL COURTS.” –A.D., ATTORNEY ***********more detail to inform the cover*****doesn't need to go on the jacket* MATT GRAHAM has four decades of experience in the criminal courts as a prosecutor and judge. Graham appeared in every level of court as a lawyer, including the Supreme Court, and presided over hundreds of felony jury trials as a judge. His appreciation for detail and in depth knowledge of criminal law is reflected in the tension filled inside look at a shaky legal system in Hidden Behind the Robe. ***Book short description (not for the cover)*** Judge Charles Dunning takes his job seriously. He metes out justice and does it fairly. He understands the gravity of his role, as a supervising judge in the Van Nuys district in Los Angeles. An anonymous letter has just landed on his desk, accusing his colleague, Judge William Hyde, of sexual misconduct. Hyde is Dunning’s polar opposite. Whereas Dunning is reserved and impartial, Hyde is flamboyant and erratic. Dunning is a grounded family man; Hyde is a philandering elitist. With the help of his lead investigator, Dunning must get to the bottom of the accusations made against Hyde. But Hyde is a clever man, and he gets to work dredging up ghosts from Dunning’s past, to compromise his investigation and possibly end his career. In a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, Hyde incites protests and threats against Dunning, and Dunning strips away layers of secrecy and subterfuge to discover the full extent of Hyde’s corruption. Full of timely themes, set in Los Angeles, and with a stylistic kinship to the likes of Michael Connelly and Joseph Wambaugh, Hidden Behind the Robe is a rare sort of legal thriller that puts the judge at center stage.

Similar audience to John Grisham, Michael Connely, Joseph Wambaugh or Lee Child

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