San Francisco defense attorney Joe Turner\u2019s latest case takes him down south to Barton, Georgia. He\u2019s there on behalf of his investigator, Chuck Argenal, whose 18-year-old nephew is accused of fatally shooting the small town\u2019s high school quarterback. There\u2019s quite a bit of evidence (though no discernible motive) implicating Carl Ledbetter, who\u2019s on the autistic spectrum (\u201ctracking other people\u2019s emotions is just too intense, too overwhelming for him. So he avoids eye contact, social cues, and buries himself in his own thoughts\u201d); a witness claims to have seen him on the night of the murder, and Carl tested positive for gunshot residue. Locals, who practically worship their high school football team, are wary of Joe\u2019s presence, since he\u2019s an outsider. He gets the most flak from the judge trying Carl\u2019s case and from the prosecuting district attorney. They seem convinced of the teen\u2019s guilt and determined to close the case quickly, presumably before the town gets too deep into the new football season. Luckily, Joe has skilled people on his side: Chuck, unsurprisingly, takes on the investigator role to help his nephew, and Joe\u2019s archaeologist girlfriend, Eddy Busier, comes for a visit and lends a hand, doing some investigating of her own. The trio\u2019s most pressing objective is unmasking the culprit, which entails identifying suspects and checking to see if their individual alibis hold up. At trial, Joe must dispute the evidence and show the jury what he sees: an innocent kid who\u2019s looking at serious time behind bars. <\/p>\n
Bequette\u2019s legal narrative moves briskly, thanks to succinct chapters that bounce the story from scene to scene. The novel employs a narrative structure that ramps up suspense; scenes of Joe working the case are intercut with the nine-person jury deliberating post-closing arguments and flashbacks from before and the night of the murder. The jury scenes are especially good, showcasing assorted personalities stuck in one room, including a blatantly offensive and bigoted juror. Carl occasionally narrates, too, and provides welcome insight into a thought process that may seem unorthodox to some readers (in one scene, someone bumps into him and angrily says, \u201cWatch yourself,\u201d which confuses Carl, who takes everything literally). The story\u2019s nonlinear mingling of scenes is easy to follow and maintains the mystery for much of the novel (the jurors don\u2019t spoil moments from the trial that readers haven\u2019t yet encountered). Joe is a likable series hero; there\u2019s no question he\u2019s an accomplished lawyer who fights hard for his clients. His believable flaws make him appealing as he struggles to retain his cool in the courtroom (he isn\u2019t always successful) and his legal tactics sometimes fail miserably. As the narrative unfolds, so do several surprises, from crucial information a particular character chooses to withhold to an unexpected revelation regarding a potential suspect. There are a handful of viable murderers, making it difficult to pinpoint who definitely did the deed\u2014the story culminates with a doozy of an ending.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
San Francisco defense attorney Joe Turner\u2019s latest case takes him down south to Barton, Georgia. He\u2019s there on behalf of his investigator, Chuck Argenal, whose 18-year-old nephew is accused of fatally shooting the small town\u2019s high school quarterback. There\u2019s quite a bit of evidence (though no discernible motive) implicating Carl Ledbetter, who\u2019s on the autistic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}