A juicy, rip-roaring courtroom drama….
Laws to sexual privacy and abortion provide the base for another complex and thrilling case for Star Gwiazda and Zenko Luczek. 2025. Masturbation is now criminalized under the law after privacy protections fell in the abortion, birth control, and gay sex rulings. Richard Peter Cockswain, a performance artist and pastor of the Church of Modern-Day Onanists, hires Star and Zenko to petition the Supreme Court of the United States to review his case involving his right to personal sexual privacy. But getting the higher court to review a case is not an easy feat. In Pope SCOTUS, the authors take on the relevant and complex issues of abortion laws and death penalty, taking readers on Star and Zenko’s journey to get a reluctant death-row inmate to exercise her right to appeal. The authors skillfully present practically improbable and raucously funny as credible; Richard is ready to go to any length to realize his goal of getting the court to review his case, even if it means loss of reputation and going to jail for two years. And even though the plot is riddled with the darkest themes—violence, loss of personal freedom, abortion, murder—the story remains comic and lighthearted, and never truly disturbing. The novel displays the authors’ ability to capture the essences of their characters fully. Star is a compelling protagonist, at once sane and bonkers, apprehensive and courageous, a fiercely determined woman who would go to any length to get justice for all clients. Zenko is equally compelling. The authors maintain a breakneck pace from one short chapter to the next. The witty, sharp prose credibly evokes the courtroom drama, while the expert characterization and the well-documented facts surrounding American laws give the story both substance and depth. Intelligently rendered, hilarious, and inventive.
Nine Popes with Nine Gavels: A Star Gwiazda legal thriller
Alex Charns & Basia Gwiazdowska
Coming soon
