Dani Trumball, a lawyer for an agency that seeks to help prisoners who have been incarcerated for crimes they claim they did not commit. The main criterion for their aid is that the men or women they help are too poor to have had adequate legal representation at their trials.
Amelia Melton requests that Dani take on the case of her grandson Winston Melton, a young man convicted of rape and murder. Win has been in prison and on death row for seven years; his death warrant has been signed, and he has 180 days left until his execution.
Dani initially refuses. The Melton's are billionaires; they have had the best representation available. Dani believes the calling of the agency (and her personal calling) is to seek justice for those who haven't been able to afford the kind of help they needed. She resents the idea that the Melton's money can commandeer her services.
Eventually, however reluctantly, the agency takes the case, and as requested by Amelia Melton, Dani and her team must take the lead.
Dani isn't comfortable with the case--not with the original conviction, not with the last minute confession by Earl Sanders that he, not Win, committed the murder, not with the idea that the Melton's money may have bought the confession. Even when she believes Win Melton, who still maintains his innocence, several things about the case bother her.
Several twists and turns keep the novel interesting as Dani's team work to discover what really happened seven years ago.
Read in June; blog post scheduled for July 10, 2015.
NetGalley/Thomas & Mercer
Mystery/Legal Thriller. July 21, 2015. Print length: 271 pages.
I don't read a lot of legal mysteries, but I do enjoy them now and then, especially when justice is served. This sounds like an interesting one.
ReplyDeleteI like several legal mystery series--especially those that spend less time in court and more time on the mystery :)
DeleteSounds like this could be good. Has the author written other books about Dani Trumball?
ReplyDeleteYes, there are more in the series. I enjoyed this one, but don't know that I will pursue the series as I am already overwhelmed with the TBR list/pile/Kindle que!
DeleteLegal mysteries aren't usually my go to read but I like that they have a race against time sort of premise. Sounds like a good one.
ReplyDeleteAs long as most of the action is investigation, not courtroom, I enjoy legal mysteries, but they aren't really my first choice either. Well, except for John Lescroart's series about Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky -- my favorite combination of legal/police procedural/suspense.
DeleteI haven't read legal thrillers in a while; they're different from the crime thrillers and the police procedural but I do read them when the mood strikes. This sounds like an interesting one.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting, and I wanted to find out what happened, but I doubt I'll keep reading the series.
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