Dear Great Book Guru, Last week I was at Clifton Park for the Sea Cliff Civic Association’s Sunset Serenade ….what a night it was! LOVEPEACE was the band, and the music and mood were rhapsodic.  While there, I overheard a group of people talking about a new book that was quite a compelling read. It was about a murder trial, but it hit on so much more. Ideas?  Sunset Serenade Fan

Dear Sunset Serenade Fan,  TRIAL by Richard North Patterson is a much talked about legal thriller that came out a few weeks ago.  The story opens in the present as a wealthy, Harvard educated politician, Chase Brevard, is planning his next career move. A Congressman from Massachusetts, he is considering running for the Senate when he sees on CNN a breaking story about a black teenager accused of murdering a deputy sheriff in Georgia. The case is receiving national attention because the boy’s mother is a prominent political activist who has championed voter rights and her son was canvassing when the murder took place. They insist that he was targeted by the sheriff and the death was an accident. Brevard realizes the boy is his son and the mother a woman he knew from college. The novel then traces the lives of the couple from their first meeting up to the present showing how wealth, race, and privilege brought them all to this moment.  The actual trial is a tense exposition of the effects of media and legal maneuvering with a shocking outcome.   Highly recommended!