Legal Dramas

Robertson, L.F. Two Lost Boys. Titan. May 2017. 400p. ISBN 9781785652783. pap. $14.95; ebk. ISBN 9781785652813. F It’s been 15 years since Marion “Andy” Hardy was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in San Quentin Prison while his younger brother was given a life sentence for the same crime. Janet Moodie, a onetime death row appeals attorney who retreated to the Northern California hills after her husband’s death, is coaxed back to work on Hardy’s case by his newly appointed postconviction lawyer, Jim ­Christie. With some trepidation, Janet begins her research with a visit to Hardy followed by weeks of poring over files and transcripts. Then, with the aid of investigator Dave Rothstein, she methodically combs through Hardy’s past, looking for any detail his previous attorney may have overlooked that will convince the courts to reconsider his case. What follows for the reader is an inquiry into both the circumstances of the murder and Hardy’s background that is as suspense filled as any police procedural. It all ends, refreshingly, in a dramatic climax without a courtroom confrontation. ­VERDICT Debut novelist Robertson brings new meaning to the term legal thriller and introduces readers to a heroine who is both savvy and mature.—Nancy McNicol, Hamden P.L., CT Turow, Scott. Testimony. Grand Central. May 2017. 486p. ISBN 9781455553549. $29; ebk. ISBN 9781455553525. F With little to go on other than the disturbing testimony of the lone survivor of an alleged massacre of 400 Roma, or “Gypsies,” in a Bosnia refugee camp in 2004, Bill Ten Boom, a former Kindle County, IL, attorney now working for the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, determines to learn the truth about the night of April 27. His investigation of the cold case takes him from Holland to a Bosnian village where the Roma may have been buried alive. One thing is certain: no one has ever heard from them again. Suspicion about possible U.S. Army involvement leads Bill to Washington, DC, to meet with a former general who had been in charge during the 2004 peacekeeping maneuvers in Bosnia. When he searches for clues a little too close to the hiding place of the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, another possible suspect in the massacre, Bill ends up in a seemingly inescapable situation. ­VERDICT Inspired by “real world events,” Turow (Presumed Innocent; Identical) crafts a complex and haunting tale of war crimes that will not only satisfy his courtroom drama devotees but also readers of international thrillers. [See Prepub Alert, 11/7/16.]—Wendy W. Paige, Shelby Cty. P.L., Morristown, IN