Synopses & Reviews
“Thats what the criminal law is: its how the day tries to correct the nights mistakes. Most of my cases, people have done something they never wouldve dreamed of doing in broad daylight.”
“What does that make us?” I said. “The nights janitors?”
“Were absolutely that,” Myra said, sipping her cosmo. “What else do we do but clean up after it? Thats why well never run out of work. Not unless someone invents a cure for night.
In Brooklyns criminal courts, justice often depends on who has the better story to tell.
After a drug-related scandal ejects Joel Deveraux from his job at a white-shoe law firm, he slides down the corporate ladder to the Public Defenders office in Brooklyn, where he defends the innocent and the guilty alike, a cog in the great clanking machine that is the New York City justice system. When his boss offers him the second chair to the savvy Myra Goldstein in a high-profile murder case, he eagerly takes it. The defendant is Lorenzo Tate, a black pot dealer from the projects who is charged with the murder of a white college student in a street shooting; and the tabloids have sunk their teeth into the racially tinged trial.
In this twisty and overwhelmingly authentic journey through the real Brooklyn, Justin Peacock paints a portrait of the law as a form of combat where the best story winsbut whos telling the truth and whos lying are matters of interpretation. And of life and death.
This compelling debut novel announces Justin Peacock as a writer who enters the territory of Richard Price and Scott Turow with a fresh new take on urban crime and punishment.
Synopsis
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
Edgar Nominee-
Best First Novel
Joel Deveraux is a rising star at a white-shoe law firm in Manhattan. But after a drug-related scandal costs him his job and nearly his law license, he slides down the corporate ladder to the Booklyn Defenders office. He arrives just in time for a high profile murder case, where he is assigned to work with the tough and savvy Myra Goldstein. With pressure from their boss and interest from the tabloids, they take on the defense of a black pot dealer from the projects who is charged with the murder of a white college student. Joel quickly learns that urban criminal law is a form of combat where the best story wins-but whos telling the truth and whos lying are matters of life and death.
About the Author
Justin Peacock received an MFA from Columbia University and a law degree from Yale. Prior to attending law school, he worked as an online producer at the
New York Times. His legal experience ranges from death-penalty defense to First Amendment cases. He lives in Brooklyn.
www.justinpeacock.net