How much can you really trust your friends? Would the people who have known you for a lifetime betray you in a heartbeat for the right price?

These are the questions pondered by Brad Meltzer in “The Tenth Justice,” the 26-year-old’s debut novel.

Set in Washington D.C., “Justice” follows the quick rise and fall of Ben Addison, a young Supreme Court clerk setting out to conquer the world. The closest people in his life have been with him since a young age, and now they are his roommates. Nathan works at the State Department, Eric is a reporter for a high-profile newspaper and Ober is an assistant to a leading senator.

Little do they know, their D.C. connections will eventually be the one thing they have to use as an advantage when faced with a sticky situation.

As a Supreme Court clerk, Ben is assigned along with fellow clerk Lisa Schulman to a Supreme Court judge. Everyday, Ben and Lisa have exclusive access to important decisions before they are made public.

Then, Ben inadvertently leaks a major money-making decision to a snake disguised as a former clerk. The lives of Ben and his friends begin to unravel. Pretty soon Ben finds himself backed up against a wall. With his job and life in danger, the only choice Ben has is to turn to his friends.

But then the unthinkable happens. A secret emerges from within Ben’s own group. With no one to trust and no one to turn to, Ben has to figure out a way to outsmart his opponents without losing his life in the process.

Meltzer has an amazing gift of turning the everyday boredom of the Supreme Court into a fast-paced world of lies, scandals and corruptness. A talent for legal writing like this hasn’t come along since John Grisham.

One advantage Meltzer holds over the more experienced Grisham is the young age of the characters he creates. Meltzer himself is a virtual wonder kid.

He’s written speeches for President Clinton’s national service program and is a graduate of Columbia Law School. This experience gives his writing a ring of truth.

With Meltzer currently working on his second novel, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ben Addison and the fast-paced world of Washington D.C. back on the shelves for another try at the legal scene.

4 STARS

Ratings based on a 5 star scale.

Kelsey Foutch is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Waterloo.