Lawyers

Before becoming a writer, Higgins was a journalist and lawyer--two career paths which have strongly influenced his style as a fiction author.

Scott Turow received a $200,000 advance for his legal thriller Presumed Innocent. Despite his financial success, Turow, a practicing defense attorney, says that no one in their right mind should believe they can make a career solely as a writer.

Book Critic John Leonard reviews two new biographies of Roy Cohn, the counsel for the Senate committee conducting the McCarthy trials, and McCarthy's aide and confidante.

Novelist, journalist and columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman. He's the author of 10 books, including Organized Crimes and Make-Believe Presidents. He's written for The Washington Post, The Chicago Daily News, and almost every major magazine. His latest work is titled Citizen Cohn, The Life and Times of Roy Cohn.

Vachss is based in New York and specializes in child abuse cases. His work extends into his crime fiction, which follows an unlicensed detective named Burke. Vachss also helped manage a juvenile prison.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new, much-hyped film starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson.

TV critic David Bianculli previews the season finale of "I'll Fly Away," on NBC. It deals with civil rights in the 1950s American South and, because of low ratings, will likely face a premature death.

Martin Espada, a poet, tenant's right attorney, and now Assistant Professor of English at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Brooklyn born -in 1957- of Puerto Rican heritage, he calls his work, "poems of advocacy, based on the lives ...consigned to silence." Espada was lauded by PEN/Revson Award for Poetry for giving "dignity to the insulted and injured of the earth." Poet Carolyn Forche describes Espada as "that subversive someone we know." His new book of poems is "City of Coughing and Dead Radiators" (Norton).

Fresh Air film critic John Power reviews the movie version of John Grisham's novel, "A Time To Kill."

One of the most popular writers of the legal thriller genre, John Grishim. The prolific writer has seven novels to his credit. His eighth and newest is "The Partner." He recently returned to practicing law.