First published 1997
Gus Bailey finds himself back in Los Angeles, the city that once celebrated him before turning its back. He's a writer and journalist who knows too well the pain of losing a child to murder. Now he watches as the O.J. Simpson trial consumes not just the courtroom but the entire city around him. The movers and shakers of Los Angeles get pulled into the spectacle alongside ordinary citizens. Gus chronicles the proceedings while battling his own demons and confronting questions about his health. The trial becomes a lens through which he examines justice for the wealthy and powerful. As the case unfolds with real people and actual locations, Gus must navigate both the media circus and his personal struggles. The story weaves together the public drama of a nation fixated on the trial with the private pain of a man facing his own mortality.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, crime, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
360 pages · Hardcover · Crown