TROUBLESHOOTER: THE STORY OF A NORTHWOODS PROSECUTOR. By Robert Traver.

1943 1st edition. 8vo (145 x 218mm). Pp294. Red and blue titles to fawn cloth.

"All or part of several of these chapters first appeared [in] Story, American Scene, Analytic, Hinterland, and, Literary America". John Voelker wrote his books under the pen-name, Robert Traver, and was a lawyer by profession. This is Voelker's first book, in which he describes the early part of his career. He later used this material as the basis of Anatomy of a Murder". Every court is this ...land of ours has ...an official who is variously called ...district attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, or just plain prosecutor. ...Where he is elected by and for a county, as is generally the case, he is also its adviser and civil representative. But by far the most important of his duties are those he discharges in the field of criminal service. ...In this book I propose to ...tell you some of my experiences and observations as prosecutor, in court and out, over a period of ten years - two as assistant prosecutor and eight as head man. This is a long time for a prosecutor to remain in office, a 'toe-stepping' job where the voters have ordained that the mortality rate shall be dismayingly high. By the time you read this book I may be devoting all my time to hunting and fishing". Voelker/Traver actually became a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, although he did fit a bit of fishing in here and there.