First published 2000
Deborah Knott has traded her defense attorney briefcase for a district judge's gavel in North Carolina's Colleton County. Between court sessions, she volunteers to build houses for battered women, expecting nothing worse than sore muscles and splinters. Instead, she witnesses the near-rape of a young woman at the construction site. When someone kills the attacker, Deborah discovers her own hammer served as the murder weapon, complete with her fingerprints wrapped around the handle. Now the former defense attorney must navigate both sides of the law as suspicion falls on her. The investigation forces Deborah to examine the thin line between justice and revenge in a community where everyone knows everyone else's secrets. She must clear her name while protecting the vulnerable women she set out to help.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, fish-out-of-water
Setting: North Carolina, Colleton County
Period: contemporary
349 pages · Hardcover · Thorndike Pr
Content warnings: violence