Author Description

This explosive novel is co-written by two men very familiar with the legal system. Sol Wachtler, former Chief Judge of the State of New York, and David Gould, a former Assistant United States Attorney, have joined forces to write a legal thriller with deeper meaning. When Luke's father is confronted with business reverses, he and his family are forced to leave their home in Augusta, Georgia. Luke goes on to Princeton and Harvard Law School, finally establishing himself as a partner in a prestigious Wall Street law firm. T.C. remains in Georgia and becomes enveloped in the miasma of bigotry. As a Klansman, he is arrested for setting fire to a synagogue. He serves a brief prison sentence, only to be charged with murder forty years later for alleged lynching of a black man-a man who was torched in a Georgia swamp forty years prior. When he learns that his "blood brother" has been arrested, Luke returns to Augusta to defend him. He and his co-counsel, Payton Simpkins, a brilliant young black attorney from Augusta, combine their talent and intellect in a trial which is filled with suspense and surprises. Readers will be enthralled as they explore the constant struggle between what is the "real" truth and what is the "best" truth. Luke ultimately must make some tough decisions, and, in the end, compels the reader to do the same.