by Dick Lehr
First published 2019
Trell's father sits in prison for a murder he didn't commit. Three decades earlier, a fourteen-year-old girl died in gang crossfire while talking with friends on a Roxbury mailbox during a sweltering Boston summer night. Police arrested and convicted Trell's father in the rush to solve the case. Now Trell believes she can uncover the truth that eluded investigators. She convinces a journalist and an attorney to reexamine the evidence with her. Together they dig into overlooked clues and witness statements from that fatal evening. But their investigation draws attention from dangerous people in the neighborhood who want the case to stay buried. As Trell gets closer to proving her father's innocence, the stakes rise. She must race to expose the real killer before those who benefit from her father's imprisonment silence her permanently.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Roxbury, Boston
Period: 1980s
336 pages · Paperback · Walker Books
Content warnings: racism, violence