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T. R. Softly
Everything Is Jake
Meet intuitive & charming sleuth T. R. Softly, who must solve the case of a secret agency threatening to topple both the mafia & the US government—perfect for fans of Chris Hauty, David Baldacci, and Joseph Finder.
A federal plea deal in Manhattan goes off the rails when a mob boss inexplicably recants his testimony days after voluntarily confessing to a lifetime of crime, and immediately, an FBI agent involved with the case goes missing. To find out what happened, the Feds call in T. R. Softly, detective fiction’s newest and most intuitive sleuth. Softly’s search takes him to Washington, D.C., where the “oddest of the forty-odd presidents of the United States” is suddenly laying plans to evaporate the U.S. government, as assassination rumors percolate in dark corners. Co-opted into partnering with a secret government agency, Softly struggles to understand how many games are being played and by whom. Is he master of his fate or has he been the unwitting agent of friends and foe? A twisting, rollicking tale that enthralls readers until the last page.
A federal plea deal in Manhattan goes off the rails when a mob boss inexplicably recants his testimony days after voluntarily confessing to a lifetime of crime, and immediately, an FBI agent involved with the case goes missing. To find out what happened, the Feds call in T. R. Softly, detective fiction’s newest and most intuitive sleuth. Softly’s search takes him to Washington, D.C., where the “oddest of the forty-odd presidents of the United States” is suddenly laying plans to evaporate the U.S. government, as assassination rumors percolate in dark corners. Co-opted into partnering with a secret government agency, Softly struggles to understand how many games are being played and by whom. Is he master of his fate or has he been the unwitting agent of friends and foe? A twisting, rollicking tale that enthralls readers until the last page.
462 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 12, 2021
About the author
Jethro K. Lieberman
44 books15 followersJethro K. Lieberman is the author, co-author, or editor of more than 30 books and has had a long and varied career in law, journalism, and legal education. His many books include The Litigious Society and The Enduring Constitution, both awarded the Silver Gavel, the American Bar Association’s top literary prize. He holds a B.A. from Yale, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia. Everything Is Jake is Lieberman’s solo fiction debut. He lives with his wife Jo Shifrin in Bethesda, Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 29, 2021
I’ve spent many a day trying cases in courtrooms in New York, but until now I’d never heard of a case that begins in open court with a confession for no good reason and that then leads, along an ever more tangled path, right into the Oval Office, occupied by a man described as the “oddest of the 40-odd presidents of the United States.” That’s saying something. The author claims the story is set some years ago. I’m not so sure: It seems to be ticking on a very contemporary clock. Regardless, the fun of reading a good mystery — and this one is better than good — is to see whether you can outguess the author. I dare you. Everything Is Jake is an exuberant tale, wrapped in good-natured humor, and has something for almost any taste: missing persons, courtroom drama, coming of age, unbalanced politicians, romantic edges, even a dose of neuroscience, with a theatrical explosion in the White House that may seem wholly fanciful and yet eerily familiar, all in pursuit of secret agents working — literally — in the “deep state.” The writing is smooth and assured, the story perky and quirky, the denouement a surprise, though maybe it’s just what you’ll be hoping for. One thing’s certain: it’s a novel take on the mayhem around us.
April 8, 2023
In a book only Mr. Lieberman's mother would love and misleadingly labeled as a mystery at my public library, the story starts reasonably strong, takes a sharp detour off the rails, and spends the last 300 pages descending into an endless chasm.
The promising start has mob bosses spontaneously confessing to their crimes and cooperating in full with authorities, only to completely and violently recant only six days later. A suspicious prosecutor hires her longtime friend, TR Swiftly, to look for an explanation of this strange behavior. So far, so good.
The next exceedingly dull and irrelevant sixty pages explores TR's teenage years, where he becomes the Encyclopedia Brown of his town, solving crimes using a database of notecards filled with the personal details of everyone he meets.
The book's next section has JR investigating the confessions and recantations which leads him to a secret government facility. At this point, any slight resemblance to a mystery story ends and the book becomes a plodding techno-"thriller".
The book is not exciting. There are numerous world-record leaps of logic to keep the investigation moving forward. The dialogue was mostly not terrible, and occasionally bad. The good news is that TR finds love at the end. The bad news is that I didn't care and neither will you.
The promising start has mob bosses spontaneously confessing to their crimes and cooperating in full with authorities, only to completely and violently recant only six days later. A suspicious prosecutor hires her longtime friend, TR Swiftly, to look for an explanation of this strange behavior. So far, so good.
The next exceedingly dull and irrelevant sixty pages explores TR's teenage years, where he becomes the Encyclopedia Brown of his town, solving crimes using a database of notecards filled with the personal details of everyone he meets.
The book's next section has JR investigating the confessions and recantations which leads him to a secret government facility. At this point, any slight resemblance to a mystery story ends and the book becomes a plodding techno-"thriller".
The book is not exciting. There are numerous world-record leaps of logic to keep the investigation moving forward. The dialogue was mostly not terrible, and occasionally bad. The good news is that TR finds love at the end. The bad news is that I didn't care and neither will you.
July 13, 2021
This is the kind of book I love to read: the plot is well-crafted and suspenseful; the twists are clever; the writing is so very good -/ the author presupposes an intelligent and witty reader; and there are so many fond memories to savor when I'm done.
One thing I detest: book reviews that give away the plot, so I shan't do that here.
This book would make a wonderful film. The characters are colorful, and the pacing is terrific. I'm casting the film in my head already...
One thing I detest: book reviews that give away the plot, so I shan't do that here.
This book would make a wonderful film. The characters are colorful, and the pacing is terrific. I'm casting the film in my head already...
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June 28, 2021What fun! Everything Is Jake is built around an ingenious conceit and keeps the reader on his toes with a genre-hopping style that goes from legal drama to juvenile detective to adult detective to political thriller to romantic comedy while lacing the whole thing with doses of political satire – which in the end becomes fairly biting. The ending is suitably big and surprising and the final switch is satisfying and sweetly amusing.
June 29, 2021
a real page turner!
July 25, 2021
This book is inventive and compelling. It’s part thriller, part satire, and ALL fun! I wouldn’t call it sci fi; “augmented reality” might be a better way to describe it. The author clearly enjoyed coming up with his characters’ names. They made me smile. I became attached to the two main characters, T. R. Softly (a remarkable detective) and Khaki (his brilliant and almost indescribable friend). I hope Jethro Lieberman writes a sequel so that I can uncover Softly’s future exploits (and I hope his pal Khaki appears in it). Anyone who likes mysteries and political satire will enjoy this book.
November 9, 2021
I received an advance copy of this book. Thank you
This is a really good book. There is humor, there are plots and subplots, twists and turns, characters that interact beautifully with each other, all coming together to be an enjoyable read.
The story starts off with the DA getting a call, that if she can work quickly, she can finally put away a long time slippery mob boss. All goes as planned, until it doesn't, her slam dunk case turns on its head when the accused recants his testimony. To help her get to the bottom of the story, she calls her long time friend TR Softly. From here, the book takes a short detour to give us some history on TR, his youth, and how he came to be someone the DA would call. The plot picks back up when he meets with her, and starts to plan what he needs to do to get to the bottom of the mystery. I won't go on further, because that's where some of the fun angles come in. Enjoy.
This is a really good book. There is humor, there are plots and subplots, twists and turns, characters that interact beautifully with each other, all coming together to be an enjoyable read.
The story starts off with the DA getting a call, that if she can work quickly, she can finally put away a long time slippery mob boss. All goes as planned, until it doesn't, her slam dunk case turns on its head when the accused recants his testimony. To help her get to the bottom of the story, she calls her long time friend TR Softly. From here, the book takes a short detour to give us some history on TR, his youth, and how he came to be someone the DA would call. The plot picks back up when he meets with her, and starts to plan what he needs to do to get to the bottom of the mystery. I won't go on further, because that's where some of the fun angles come in. Enjoy.
December 23, 2021
A crisply written and always witty narrative, which drives you with high energy through multiple genres (romance, mystery, science fiction, political, and more) with multiple oddly named and often just plain odd characters, all of which kept me interested and reading and wanting to know, Where is this thing going to zig-zag next? I thoroughly enjoyed it, even as it was sometimes disorienting and sometimes informative about the law and intelligence agencies, and sometimes, often, just plain fun. The ending was worth waiting for and made me want to revisit whole parts of the book again. No spoiler alerts here — just be prepared for light-hearted, head-twisting plot turns, and multiple occasions to laugh out loud. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
November 8, 2021
I loved it and only wish I could have read it in binge fashion. There is so much going on and so much snickering and even chortling being done! Politics is a farce on a good day, and this book with it's convolutions, twists, and even a bit of theatrics is a really great read!
I won a print copy from a LibraryThing Giveaway and my eyes did me a disservice on that (explaining why it took me so long to read it without a TTS).
I won a print copy from a LibraryThing Giveaway and my eyes did me a disservice on that (explaining why it took me so long to read it without a TTS).
October 24, 2021
I received this through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.
The early part reminded me a bit of the old Perry Mason TV show. Then, we jump back to T. R. Softly's childhood, how he met Khaki Blumenthrace and how he became a detective. Next, we jump to T. R.'s current investigation. At some point, we jump to the US President and how he became President, before we finally get to the crux of the plan--maybe.
I agree with another reviewer who stated that the author didn't seem to know what kind of book he wanted to write, and as a result it ended up in a jumbled mess that had me struggling to want to read the last couple chapters (because by that point, I wasn't really sure they'd clear up any of the confusion I already had).
It's a shame because the book started out with promise. I guessed wrong on how they got the confession out of the person.
The early part reminded me a bit of the old Perry Mason TV show. Then, we jump back to T. R. Softly's childhood, how he met Khaki Blumenthrace and how he became a detective. Next, we jump to T. R.'s current investigation. At some point, we jump to the US President and how he became President, before we finally get to the crux of the plan--maybe.
I agree with another reviewer who stated that the author didn't seem to know what kind of book he wanted to write, and as a result it ended up in a jumbled mess that had me struggling to want to read the last couple chapters (because by that point, I wasn't really sure they'd clear up any of the confusion I already had).
It's a shame because the book started out with promise. I guessed wrong on how they got the confession out of the person.
June 30, 2023
It starts out fun even funny at parts. The life of Softy was actually the best part of the book . I wanted to learn more about him .The actual revelations in the investigation? bored me .
but them at about 70 percent through..
it got annoying and started dragging .
it was tedious to plod through
WAY TOO LONG! chop off at least 75 pages .
60% of the way through, the humor and charm had gone bye bye . was a bunch of gobbly gook and annoying characters . My eyes started crossing and I only finished the book by skim reading .
PS can't stand the adult Khaki.
but them at about 70 percent through..
it got annoying and started dragging .
it was tedious to plod through
WAY TOO LONG! chop off at least 75 pages .
60% of the way through, the humor and charm had gone bye bye . was a bunch of gobbly gook and annoying characters . My eyes started crossing and I only finished the book by skim reading .
PS can't stand the adult Khaki.
August 13, 2021
I received this book as part of LibraryThing’s early reviewer program
I think the author didn’t know if he wanted to write a mystery a techno thriller or a political satire. The book ends up weaker and pretty jumbled because of it. I ended up skimming a lot of the last third of the book. 3 stars for young TR
I think the author didn’t know if he wanted to write a mystery a techno thriller or a political satire. The book ends up weaker and pretty jumbled because of it. I ended up skimming a lot of the last third of the book. 3 stars for young TR
June 27, 2023
This book does not have a plot. What it does have is a LOT of backstory. I never thought I'd say it, because well-fleshed out backstory is key to strong characters, but boy howdy, LIeberman spent WAAAAAAYYY too much time on backstory. And there's just way too much of it on the page.
The book is just rife with implausibilities. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. I can handle aliens and ghosts and all manner of weird stuff, but if you set your story in the real world, then it's a lot harder for me to believe ridiculous things. And this book is chock full of ridiculous things. A Trumpian president (which should be plausible but somehow wasn't). A medical technique, which is the crux of the story, that just absolutely could not actually exist. Just utterly ridiculous and also pointlessly dumb.
Also, the detective kept discovering things, which were just incredibly obvious, and then everyone would be super impressed. Seriously? This guy is not that smart. But he is a mean-spirited jerk. Let me explain. So almost everyone in this book has a weird name with a backstory. There's Khaki, of course. And TR. He's named after Teddy Roosevelt, whom his parents loved. Except he doesn't love his name. When people ask what the letters stand for he generally doesn't tell them and is often a bit snippy about it. So you'd think he'd be sensitive about names. No. He has an employee who changed his name from something he hated to ... honestly, I can't even remember. Because instead of calling him by his new name, TR refers to him as Formerly. As in, Formerly whatever the previous name was. Even when this character asks TR to stop calling him Formerly, TR doesn't. That, my friends, is an asshole move. As soon as I read this, I hated TR. There's no redeeming that sort of self-centered asshattery. The way it's written, the author seems really pleased with himself over this clever bit of backstory and doesn't even realize that he's just turned him main character into a total jerk.
And finally, how old were these characters? All references tell me the book happens in modern day and the (extensive) backstory shows characters at their prom dancing to George Michael and Madonna, which means these characters are exactly the same age I am. The author ages them down a decade plus for his convoluted love story, so okay, they're late thirties, early forties. So why does one of these character spend the entire book saying, "Willikers!" every time she's surprised? Gen X never said Willikers. We did not grow up in the 1940's. And even if this one character DID buck all trends and say Willikers as a child, there's no way she continues saying it into the 2020's. Slang evolves. People evolve. Their language choices change. It catapulted me out of the story every single time she said it. And she said it a lot. Plus, it made me feel unmoored in time. And all the central characters talked like they were living in a 1940's dime store novel. I *think* it was part of the author's 'it's a satire' shtick, but it didn't work.
This book is twee, cringe-worthy, full of ridiculous implausibilities, and worst of all, BORING. Do not recommend.
The book is just rife with implausibilities. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. I can handle aliens and ghosts and all manner of weird stuff, but if you set your story in the real world, then it's a lot harder for me to believe ridiculous things. And this book is chock full of ridiculous things. A Trumpian president (which should be plausible but somehow wasn't). A medical technique, which is the crux of the story, that just absolutely could not actually exist. Just utterly ridiculous and also pointlessly dumb.
Also, the detective kept discovering things, which were just incredibly obvious, and then everyone would be super impressed. Seriously? This guy is not that smart. But he is a mean-spirited jerk. Let me explain. So almost everyone in this book has a weird name with a backstory. There's Khaki, of course. And TR. He's named after Teddy Roosevelt, whom his parents loved. Except he doesn't love his name. When people ask what the letters stand for he generally doesn't tell them and is often a bit snippy about it. So you'd think he'd be sensitive about names. No. He has an employee who changed his name from something he hated to ... honestly, I can't even remember. Because instead of calling him by his new name, TR refers to him as Formerly. As in, Formerly whatever the previous name was. Even when this character asks TR to stop calling him Formerly, TR doesn't. That, my friends, is an asshole move. As soon as I read this, I hated TR. There's no redeeming that sort of self-centered asshattery. The way it's written, the author seems really pleased with himself over this clever bit of backstory and doesn't even realize that he's just turned him main character into a total jerk.
And finally, how old were these characters? All references tell me the book happens in modern day and the (extensive) backstory shows characters at their prom dancing to George Michael and Madonna, which means these characters are exactly the same age I am. The author ages them down a decade plus for his convoluted love story, so okay, they're late thirties, early forties. So why does one of these character spend the entire book saying, "Willikers!" every time she's surprised? Gen X never said Willikers. We did not grow up in the 1940's. And even if this one character DID buck all trends and say Willikers as a child, there's no way she continues saying it into the 2020's. Slang evolves. People evolve. Their language choices change. It catapulted me out of the story every single time she said it. And she said it a lot. Plus, it made me feel unmoored in time. And all the central characters talked like they were living in a 1940's dime store novel. I *think* it was part of the author's 'it's a satire' shtick, but it didn't work.
This book is twee, cringe-worthy, full of ridiculous implausibilities, and worst of all, BORING. Do not recommend.
September 1, 2021
I received this book as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program.
Billed as “A T.R. Softly Detective Novel” there's not a lot of detecting going on here. There's a pistol on the cover and I can't remember a single time a gun is drawn or a shot is fired. No one is arrested or otherwise brought to justice through Softly's efforts. Most of Softly's insights are provided after the fact, Poirot-like, and even then he's only partly right.
That doesn't mean that there aren't some enjoyable sections. The initial setup, with a crime boss confessing to every crime he's ever committed, is a good puzzler – why did he and other criminal kingpins confess in court and then recant? The next section, about Softly's youth and the beginning of his training as a detective, is also well done. The characters are interesting and many are likable. And the ultimate caper scene put a smile on my face.
On the other hand, the author's heavy-handed Presidential satire falls flat. Read Christopher Buckley if that type of thing amuses you. The central gimmick of the book, swapping places, is described in tortuous detail and makes no scientific sense at all. The plot inside a plot inside a plot is so fraught with possible miscues that my credibility was strained. And it is verbose, with long conversations and very little action. There's a good 250-page book in here, unfortunately it weighs in at over 400.
Billed as “A T.R. Softly Detective Novel” there's not a lot of detecting going on here. There's a pistol on the cover and I can't remember a single time a gun is drawn or a shot is fired. No one is arrested or otherwise brought to justice through Softly's efforts. Most of Softly's insights are provided after the fact, Poirot-like, and even then he's only partly right.
That doesn't mean that there aren't some enjoyable sections. The initial setup, with a crime boss confessing to every crime he's ever committed, is a good puzzler – why did he and other criminal kingpins confess in court and then recant? The next section, about Softly's youth and the beginning of his training as a detective, is also well done. The characters are interesting and many are likable. And the ultimate caper scene put a smile on my face.
On the other hand, the author's heavy-handed Presidential satire falls flat. Read Christopher Buckley if that type of thing amuses you. The central gimmick of the book, swapping places, is described in tortuous detail and makes no scientific sense at all. The plot inside a plot inside a plot is so fraught with possible miscues that my credibility was strained. And it is verbose, with long conversations and very little action. There's a good 250-page book in here, unfortunately it weighs in at over 400.
July 21, 2021
Fantastic. It's billed as a mystery or detective story, and it is, but it's more than that. It's really political fiction--a story of political intrigue. The world of *Everything is Jake* is very close to our own. In reading it, we are immersed in an unfortunately too believable scenario where different players (with well-developed characters) that have their own quirks, desires, and ambitions are working for their own purposes, some good, some bad, all wonderfully flawed. The heroes--flawed though they be--are believable and lovable. Given how close the possible world of *Everything is Jake* is to contemporary America, one finds oneself trying to figure out who the characters represent, if anyone (some surely do), thinking about both their names (interesting in itself) and their behaviors. However, it is fiction (or mostly anyway), so even if one simply likes considering how things *could* be in Washington without thinking about who might represent who, the book makes a great read. I should note that there were times that I found myself doubting everything could be pulled together--thinking "surely *this* detail is going to be a problem for the consistency of the story"--but Lieberman masterfully ties up all loose ends creating a remarkably woven tale--perhaps the best new book I've read in ... a decade? longer? Highly recommend.
November 11, 2021
I'm giving this book 3 stars because of the way the story jumps around. At times it was rather confusing. I have to agree with 1 reviewer who said it's like the author wasn't sure what kind of a book to write. I will say that once he settled on a story for a while it was interesting and a fun read. I received this from LibraryThing Early Reviewer for an honest review.
April 13, 2023
A book so ridiculous that it became quite enjoyable by the end... but still I probably wouldn't recommend it.
Mobsters have been confessing to all of their crimes in open court, only to recant after being convicted. A federal prosecutor calls in her friend detective TR Softly to unravel what's going on. Also the President of the United States is kind of wacko.
Part detective story, part techno thriller this book started interesting and the turns just kept getting weirder and weirder. None of the characters or actions felt real, they just needed to "be" in order to keep the plot moving forward. At a certain point you just give in and enjoy the unbelievable aspects. While I don't regret reading this book, I do wonder about the opportunity cost.
If you're looking for a better detective story go for Loise Penny's "Still Life" series.
Mobsters have been confessing to all of their crimes in open court, only to recant after being convicted. A federal prosecutor calls in her friend detective TR Softly to unravel what's going on. Also the President of the United States is kind of wacko.
Part detective story, part techno thriller this book started interesting and the turns just kept getting weirder and weirder. None of the characters or actions felt real, they just needed to "be" in order to keep the plot moving forward. At a certain point you just give in and enjoy the unbelievable aspects. While I don't regret reading this book, I do wonder about the opportunity cost.
If you're looking for a better detective story go for Loise Penny's "Still Life" series.
June 19, 2024
Really enjoyed! Multiple layers to the mystery. Also pretty sure they listed Pi wrong.
May 24, 2026
the first half was really strong, but once i got halfway, it really started taking a dip, and it didn't recover
January 7, 2026
Brilliant, fun, inventive, wild, imaginative - and more. Though published a few years ago, it remains exceptionally relevant to today's world. Eerily so, in fact. Overall it is a rich satire with memorable characters, richly endowed with back stories. Super-highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews