Guilty Until Innocent: A Novel
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Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
Justice has been served . . . unless the accused is innocent.
Life in prison is often a nightmare, but Joe Moore believes he is just where God intends him to be. Twenty-five years ago, while high on meth, he makes one terrible mistake after another, culminating in the brutal murder of a young, influential couple. Today, Joe is a radically different person, thriving in his role as a ministry leader and role model to his fellow inmates.
After being fired from two previous law firms, young lawyer Ryan Clark and his wife, Paige, have settled into a small North Carolina town. Hired by a distant relative, Ryan is committed to connecting with the right clients and handling the mundane tasks while his cousin Tom takes on the high-profile cases.
But when critical health issues land Tom in the hospital, Ryan is forced to take the helm at the law firm--just in time for the town's biggest case in history to be reopened. Joe Moore's niece has been doing some digging and, convinced that her incarcerated uncle is innocent, insists that Ryan relaunch the investigation immediately.
After Ryan meets with Joe, both men receive threats that put their own lives--as well as the lives of those around them--in danger. It appears that together they've pulled back a dark curtain that hides a deeper evil than anyone in town suspects exists. Now they must determine if continuing with the case is worth the risk--and if the cost of proving one man's innocence is too great when the lives of so many others would be placed in mortal danger.
Reviews with the most likes.
More Southern Fiction Than Legal Thriller. Admittedly it has been several years since I last picked up a book by Whitlow, but back in the day this author was essentially a Christian form of John Grisham - he's going to give you tight, exciting legal thrillers of some form (via inside or outside the courtroom itself), but a Christian version of it where people more openly pray and talk about "God stuff" and such.
This book... keeps all the "God stuff" *in spades* (seriously, if you're openly hostile to anything Christian or even just not at all interested in anything Christian... don't bother reading this book, you're not going to like it) but ditches the legal thriller aspects in favor of a more Boo Walker or Nicholas Sparks or Pat Conroy ish Southern fiction tale.
The story is long, some might argue too long, drawn out, yet ultimately satisfying for what it actually is and the multiple sub plots it is running concurrently. There is a *touch* of action near the end, but it really is more of a "slight rise on a kiddie coaster" level than anything particularly suspenseful - more suspenseful than anything else in this tale, but that only serves to highlight just how little actual danger there seems to be at any point here.
Still a great tale for what it actually is, just in no way any form of thriller or suspense.
Very much recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.