The Guardians by John Grisham

Hardback: John Grisham delivers a classic legal thriller in The Guardians (2019) - with a twist.

In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of Russo’s. Just the fact that Russo had botched Quincy's divorce case, that Quincy was black in a largely all-white town and that a blood-spattered torch was found in the boot of Quincy's car. A torch he swore was planted. A torch that was conveniently destroyed in a fire just before the trial.

The lack of evidence made no difference to judge or jury. In the eyes of the law Quincy was guilty and no matter how often he protested his innocence, his punishment was life in prison. For twenty-two years he languished in prison. No one was listening. He had no lawyer, no advocate on the outside. In desperation, he writes a letter to Guardian Ministries, a small nonprofit run by Cullen Post, a lawyer who is also an Episcopal minister.

Guardian accepts only a few innocence cases at a time. Cullen Post travels the country fighting wrongful convictions and taking on clients forgotten by the system. Post has exonerated eight men in the last ten years. He intends to make Quincy the next. However, with Quincy Miller, though, he gets far more than he bargained for.

Powerful, ruthless people murdered Keith Russo, and they do not want Quincy Miller exonerated. They prefer that an innocent man dies in jail rather than one of them. There is one way to guarantee that - they killed one lawyer twenty-two years ago, and they will kill another without a second thought.

About the author: John Grisham is the author of thirty-three novels, one work of non-fiction, a collection of stories and seven novels for young readers. The recent critically-acclaimed Netflix series, An Innocent Man, was based on his non-fiction bestseller. His works are translated into forty-two languages. He lives in Virginia. Find out more at jgrisham.com and stay in touch via Facebook at John Grisham Books.

Rating:  6/5