⚖️Character spotlight: Michelle Hartmann

 

Book: Criminal Plague

Role: Unreliable narrator. Former criminal defense attorney. Publicly disgraced legal icon. Privately unrepentant architect of injustice.

Backstory: Michelle Hartmann was not born powerful—she was forged in the heat of rejection, social exclusion, and the relentless pursuit of control. Her early years were defined by discipline, debate, and a compulsive need to win arguments in dinner-table silence. With no mentors but countless rivals, Michelle clawed her way through the upper echelons of law, thriving in courtrooms where emotion was weakness and manipulation was art. By the time she was 28, she had already established herself as the city’s most dangerous ally for the guilty.

Behind the scenes, she made deals in shadows. Prosecutors vanished, jurors were paid off, and cases were derailed before they even began. She was brilliant, yes, but that brilliance was toxic. She wasn’t above cheating; she was beneath the idea that she needed to play fair in the first place.

🧠Personality Traits:

• Eloquent to a fault

• Calculated and self-possessed

• Emotionally absent, even when talking about atrocities

• Sarcastic under pressure

• Disdainful of morality, while weaponizing it in court

• Obsessed with perception, but not redemption

🎭Key Conflicts and Arcs:

• Michelle’s public downfall begins with her 2019 interview with Cole King, who strips away the armor of her curated reputation and exposes the rot beneath. Yet, even when faced with truth, Michelle never breaks. Instead, she uses the opportunity to spin her downfall into a platform, a stage for her “uncensored” version of events.

• She does not seek forgiveness, nor does she offer apology. The conflict isn’t whether Michelle will change—it’s whether the audience will see her as a symptom or the disease itself. Her arc is not transformation, it’s decay in slow motion.

• She confesses only to control the narrative. Her greatest fear is not guilt or hell, it’s irrelevance.

🖋️Memorable Quotes:

“Justice isn’t blind. It’s well-paid.”

“I didn’t fail the system. I perfected it.”

“If you’re waiting for regret, try someone else’s story.”

"Cole King didn’t break me. He gave me a microphone."

Why Readers Should Care: Michelle Hartmann is the kind of villain who never calls herself one. She’s not evil in the way movies teach you to expect. She’s polished, poised, and always one legal precedent ahead of her enemy. Readers aren’t meant to root for Michelle, but they will be fascinated by her. She is the lawyer you hope never defends your enemy and fear might one day represent your friend.

In Criminal Plague, Michelle takes the reins of her own scandal and weaponizes storytelling itself. Through her frigid honesty and relentless justifications, readers are invited to witness not just a woman unravelling, but a culture that applauded her rise, until it didn’t.

Her spotlight isn’t one she wants dimmed. It’s one she’ll burn in, so long as everyone keeps watching. Read Interviewing Ms. Hartmann now 

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