Rated 4 of 5 stars
Cordell writes a this legal thriller with a character-driven vision. As we meet the main character, Thane, as he is released from prison for a crime he claims he did not commit, we follow him as he immerses himself back into regular life…whilst not being quite “regular” anymore. Thane is a real estate attorney that effectively found a loophole in the legal system which initiated his release. The District Attorney, sullen and disgusted at his release, finds himself face-to-face with Thane again as he fights for a fellow ex-inmate’s freedom. Thane believes his buddy is innocent of murder and uses what he learned in criminal justice law to help his colleague plead his innocence on trial against a blood-hungry, ambitious DA. What Thane finds along his investigation of the crime links certain players to the crime he was jailed for. Readers will follow Thane’s journey as he fights for fairness and justice on what becomes more than one murder case.
Readers will enjoy Cordell’s writing style and character development. Cordell writes in an easy, fluent manner that gives just enough ambiance, environment and purposeful mannerisms that it’s easy to see the town, the people and the purposeful decisions of each character. The only thing I didn’t like about the story is the stereotypical secondary characters. Besides the main character (who was innocent), the other two convicts were black, big guys from poor means and seemingly trigger thin personalities. They also admittedly were thieves and repeat offenders with no futures. I felt that this did a disservice to the story as one could have easily written the big, mean ex-cons similar to the main character and would not have taken away from the story. Unfortunately, this stood out to me as distasteful as a black woman and as a blatant stereotypical misstep on the writers behalf.
All in all, the writing was well done and the plot had a great twist at the end I didn’t see coming. It would’ve been a 5 star novel without the underlying stereotypes.
Raging Book Reviews Recommended
*Special thanks to the author and publisher for gifting a softcopy for an honest review!
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