A lawyer turned author unravels a mystery

David Miraldi draws on his decades of courtroom experience to write true-crime stories. In this interview we talked about both the cases he has written about and the difficult business of publishing your book, whether it be a memoir, true-crime, or fiction.
He has published three books based on his research and personal experience. His latest is “The Edge of Doubt: The Trial of Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen”, which tracks a case involving accusations of sexual molestation of preschoolers in a Head Start program in Lorain, Ohio, in 1993. That case has drawn national attention.
His first book, “The Edge of Innocence”, published in 2017, was based on a murder case from the 1960s in which his father represented the accused. That book won Book of the Year from the International Rubery Awards for independent and self-published authors.
The award led to a contract with a publisher for his second book, based on a case he handled, “The Edge of Malice.” He had an option with the publisher to market his third book but asked them not to exercise it. His wife (who is also an attorney) negotiated a buyback of the second book from the publisher, and now they own all three books.
“I found out that no one cares as much about your book as you do. If you're doing it because you have something to say and you love writing, and you like control - and obviously, I like to be in control - I prefer the self publishing route.”