Blood Defense is a 2016 legal thriller by Marcia Clark, an attorney and former prosecutor. The first of a series, the novel follows criminal defense attorney and television pundit Samantha Brinkman as she takes on a high-profile murder case. It was announced in August 2016 that the first two Brinkman novels were being adapted as a TV series for NBC, to be co-written by Clark. Background Blood Defense draws on Clark's personal experience as a defense attorney early in her career. She later came into the public eye as the lead prosecutor in the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial. From 2011 to 2014, Clark wrote a series of legal thriller novels featuring prosecutor Rachel Knight, which includes Guilt By Association, Guilt By Degrees, Killer Ambition, and The Competition. Guilt By Association was adapted into a television pilot for TNT in 2014. While Knight is straightforward and unlikely to bend the rules, Clark called Blood Defense lead character Samantha Brinkman "more morally ambiguous". Clark said that she developed Rachel Knight from a desire to write a realistic take on a prosecutor and her friends, with women supporting each other at a time when the opposite was being celebrated with The Real Housewives. By contrast, Samantha Brinkman reflects her interest in "noir and a darker character". She said: Clark noted, "You have a lot more leeway with a defense attorney than with a prosecutor ... The prosecution has to go with the evidence and the facts and tell the story as it happened. The defense has more creative freedom. All you have to do is look for a defense that works. But it doesn't have to be the truth." She also said of Samantha, "The fact that she is a defense attorney creates a lot of new possibilities for me as a writer. She's also sort of reckless and daring and she pushes things far, in terms of the lengths that she will go to to get things done." Clark said, "I particularly wanted to show what a defense attorney's job is in this age of social media, as well as the ability of a lawyer to access public opinion through Twitter and Facebook. I wanted to use all of today's tools to show what it's like to be a defense attorney in this world." Plot Samantha Brinkman, an eager criminal defense attorney with few clients but a good reputation in the