Steve Martini: From Sacramento to the Best-Seller List
By Geoffrey Goodman

Probably the most successful writer to rise from the ranks of Sacramento lawyers, Steve Martini is the author of a best-selling series of courtroom dramas featuring trial lawyer "Paul Madriani" and his sidekick, Harry Hinds.

A San Francisco native who graduated with honors from UC Santa Cruz, Martini came to Sacramento to open a capitol bureau for the Los Angeles Daily Journal. While Martini covered legal issues around the capitol, he attended McGeorge School of Law and received his law degree in 1974. His friend, Kip Solinski, remembers that Martini was a tough investigative reporter who "liked to nail people" in well researched pieces that were often picked up by major newspapers.

Martini spent a couple of years in private practice working for the late Mel Coben at Coben, Cooper and Zyloff. He spent most of his time working on personal injury matters and domestic disputes. Nancy Coben, still a good friend of Martini's, recalls that "Steve had a passion for writing" and that "he realized pretty early that he didn't want to be a trial lawyer."

Soon tiring of private practice, Martini next spent two years as the lobbyist for the State Bar, followed by a stint in solo practice while he continued to write as a stringer for the Daily Journal.

During the eighties, Martini held a variety of administrative and staff counsel positions for state agencies, including the short-lived Traffic Adjudication Board, the Office of Administrative Hearings and the Department of Consumer Affairs.

In the mid-eighties, Martini decided he wanted to write a mystery novel. He recalled reading a Look Magazine article that recounted a story of the "ghost blimp," an anti-submarine blimp that patrolled the San Francisco bay whose crew had vanished. Martini began researching the event and wrote some chapters based on what he learned. Martini linked up with a literary agent and sold the book, The Simeon Chamber (and a required second book) for a whopping $11,000.

In his second book, Compelling Evidence, Martini created his Paul Madriani character. Two eventful things occurred around this time. First, he met with his small New York publisher who told him that a "lawyer" novel wouldn't be successful because Scott Turow's books would satisfy the public's limited interest in the genre. Second, Martini's house in Auburn burned to the ground.

Martini was shaken, but not stirred. He decided to commit to his writing full time and used some of the insurance proceeds to buy back the rights from his unenthusiastic publisher. The rest, as they say, is history. Putting his book on the open market, it was snatched up by G.P. Putnam Sons, Inc. and the Putnam-Berkeley Group. Compelling Evidence was published in 1992 and became a bestseller that has been translated for publication in more than fifteen countries. It has been followed by five other Madriani best-sellers: Prime Witness, Undue Influence, The Judge, The Attorney and The Jury. Word on the street has it that his newest, the just-released The Arraignment, is the best yet. Novels outside the Madriani series include: The Simeon Chamber, The List and Critical Mass, a story of international nuclear terrorism published two years before the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Martini's advice to other lawyers who yearn to be best-selling authors is pretty simple -- take a writing class, read good dialogue (Elmore Leonard is his favorite), write and get a good agent. "Trial lawyers learn to tell a story and develop a theme. They are familiar with the skills of the story-telling craft" he said.

Martini has a few other qualities that may account for his success. Dan Buntjer, a former colleague at the Department of Consumer Affairs, described Martini as having "more energy than anybody he has ever met." Martini is also "a voracious reader who is interested in everything," Buntjer said.
If you have read the Madriani series, you are probably wondering why Martini moved Madriani from "Capitol City" to San Diego. Martini says that one of the reasons for the move was the rich literary "color" the San Diego area offers, but also admitted that the alleged similarity of some of the characters in his novels to real people in Sacramento was a consideration.

In 1992, Martini moved his family to Bellingham, Washington, though he keeps in touch with his many friends in Sacramento.