I'm on a quest to read books by diverse authors this year because authors of color are underrepresented in my reading history. Got to even things up a bit.

This mystery by Pamela Samuels Young was a lot of fun. It's a courtroom drama following the trial of the main suspect from prep to verdict. The main character was well developed. She was smart, fiery and strong. Her weakness is her blindspot for how her actions affect others. She just isn't a particularly empathetic person. Over the course of the book you see her grow as a person and as an attorney, which is nice. I was pleased that there were a few surprises in there and that not everything> is resolved by the end. That would have been too neat and a bit corny so I'm glad that was avoided. The important parts were wrapped up though so the mystery was satisfying.

Honestly, there were some things in the book that were weak. A few bits of evidence either weren't explained or discussed until the end or were resolved in unsatisfying ways. It seemed to me that there were some obvious additional bits evidence that could have contributed to the suspect's defense by creating reasonable doubt that were never brought up at trial. I felt that there were too many times when the book had me asking questions that it should have resolved for me.

Some of the social dialogue was a bit weak, but the dialogue overall was solid. Having worked in a big firm for the last 4 years I can assure that this is exactly how partners talk, act and think. smh.

There were a couple of editorial errors primarily in the form of missing quotation marks to open a quote and one or two missing words in the book. Something for future editors to note.

Overall, the book moved along at a nice pace and always left me wanting to know what happened next. It's a hard book to put down. Definitely recommend it if you like lawyerly procedurals. Plan to read more Vernetta Henderson books in the future. Recommended. ( )

Employment attorney Vernetta Henderson learns that she is help defend a prominent socialite accused of murder teaming up with Neddy McClain. The only other African-American attorney at the firm. ( )