Description
When consequences become optional, someone else pays them. Marcus Webb needs money. Fast. When a legal substitution firm offers him $75,000 to stand in for a tech executive accused of vehicular manslaughter, the contract is clear: he will appear in court, face the jury, absorb the scrutiny - and then disappear. The client stays offshore. The proxy takes the weight. As the trial unfolds, Marcus realizes he isn’t just representing another man. He’s becoming the public face of a crime, the target of outrage, and the stand-in for guilt that money can’t erase. When buried evidence surfaces too late to change the verdict, the truth becomes irrelevant - and the system closes ranks. The Stand-In is the first novel in The Substitute Lives, a near-future thriller series about legalized identity transfer, moral displacement, and what happens when accountability can be outsourced. If someone can suffer in your place... Who are you afterward? And who are they?
About the Author
Owen Black is the author of "PROXY PATIENT" and other works.
