First published 2024
Jack Lee has spent his legal career avoiding trouble in Freeman County, Virginia. In 1968, he makes a decision that changes everything: defending Jerome Washington, a Black man accused of murdering a wealthy white couple. Lee knows his legal skills might not be enough against a system designed to convict his client. When Desiree DuBose arrives from Chicago, she brings years of civil rights experience and a commitment to justice that Lee has never possessed. The two lawyers form an uneasy partnership to face the Commonwealth's top prosecutor. DuBose recognizes that forces beyond the courtroom want to reverse the gains of the Civil Rights movement. Lee and DuBose have different backgrounds, different motivations, and different approaches to the law. Separately, neither can prevent the prosecution from securing a conviction and death sentence. Together, they discover they might be able to achieve something that seemed impossible in the Jim Crow South: a fair trial for a Black defendant.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, underdog
Setting: Freeman County, Virginia, Chicago
Period: 1968
480 pages · Hardcover · Grand Central Publishing
Content warnings: racism