Mystery/Thriller -- 3 1/2 stars
When a young lawyer is shot dead in his office, there are no witnesses, and no physical evidence. The police soon focus on Quincy Miller, a black man who was a client of the lawyer and unhappy with the way his case was decided. He is convicted and sentenced to prison for life where twenty-two years later, he comes to the attention of The Guardians, a small non-profit group dedicated to getting the innocent out of prison. The Guardians usually don't spend their meager resources on finding the real guilty parties, but this time, they may have to. ----- Not your usual John Grisham court procedural, this book spends most of its time outside the courtroom. The slow and careful extraction of the truth is well managed, if not particularly exciting. A second case shares space with the Quincy Miller exoneration and slows down the pace in the beginning. Once that case is taken care of and focus is squarely on Mr. Miller, things pick up, but it is not until the final pages, which do take place in the courtroom, that Grisham shines. The Guardian characters are interesting, especially their leader, Cullen Post, an Episcopalian priest with a law degree who uses both with aplomb.
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