Mining the same vein as Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Grisham's A TIME TO KILL, and Joe R. Lansdale's THE BOTTOMS, Baldacci has his work cut out for him with this novel. It's ambitious and, unfortunately, rather timely as racism rears its ugly head yet again.

I've read a few other reviews that state that this seems to be a rather large departure for Baldacci. I'm not sure, as this is the first novel of his I've read.

Overall, there's a lot to love here, and some stuff that isn't quite as palatable. The story itself is, sadly, one we see time and again, to our great shame. There are days when I question if we'll ever learn to accept our neighbours—regardless of sexuality, skin tone, religion, or anything else we can find to arbitrarily hate because we don't understand it—as humans, just like ourselves. So, yes, this is a common, yet important story.

The main characters are, for the most part, fairly flat and one-dimensional. Baldacci does seem to try harder with his secondary characters, most especially with Jack Lee's mother. As well, the other thing that struck me right up front with this novel was that the writing itself—for an author of damn near sixty books—was only okay. Nothing sharp or spectacular. It got the job done, but at no point was I dazzled or hit with subtle truths like I have been in all of the other three books mentioned above.

And, while the story itself was reasonably predictable, I was a little disappointed with how Baldacci was able to finish the actual trial. It seemed a little too pat, too easy.

Finally, and I think this may be the biggest complaint of the novel both from myself and from many of the other reviewers, while I applaud Baldacci's method, I'll say this yet again: There are ways to get points across in a novel without having characters drop long diatribes that essentially spell out the theme of the novel, or offer screeds against the injustices being addressed in the novel.

Desiree DuBose is often a brilliant character, yet Baldacci actually seems to cheapen her with all of the rants he gives her, either in dialogue with Jack, or a few of the supporting characters, or especially with the press. If you have to give her a soapbox, then choose the spot of maximum effect, and get it in and then get out quick. But having multiple ones? It diminishes the message.

So, this was a fairly standard courtroom drama, but I think it was a touch heavy-handed, and thus fails at both delivering entertainment and delivering what could have been an important, poignant message.