The Guardians
A Novel
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4.2 • 349 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An idealistic lawyer makes dangerous enemies as he fights to free an innocent man sentenced to life in prison in this “suspenseful thriller mixed with powerful themes” (Associated Press).
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.
Quincy was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for life. For twenty-two years he languished in prison, maintaining his innocence. But 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. 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 killed one lawyer twenty-two years ago, and they will kill another without a second thought.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The undisputed master of the legal thriller gets personal in The Guardians, which is inspired by his admiration for the work of faith-based organizations fighting on behalf of the wrongfully accused. John Grisham’s novel stars Cullen Post, a lawyer working to exonerate Quincy Miller, a black man framed for murder by powerful people over 20 years ago. But righting that wrong could mean a death sentence for the innocence crusader himself. The Guardians is filled with righteous social commentary, but it still shows off Grisham’s talent for suspense and plot twists. The novel’s as gripping as previous thrillers like A Time to Kill, but it also tugged at our heartstrings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A lack of nuance mars this novel from bestseller Grisham (The Reckoning), which centers on idealistic attorneys fighting wrongful convictions. Cullen Post, who became a Lutheran minister after burning out as a public defender, is working as a lawyer again in Savannah, Ga., where he runs Guardian Ministries, which helps convicts whose claims of innocence he and his three colleagues, including a man he helped free from incarceration, deem worth investigating. In the first chapter, Duke Russell is minutes away from execution when Post's request for a stay is granted, giving him time to pursue his belief that Duke wasn't in fact guilty of raping and murdering a woman 11 years earlier. Guardian Ministries is also seeking to prove that Quincy Miller is innocent of the shotgun murder of his former attorney, Keith Russo, in Seabrook, Fla., and deserves his freedom. Post and his allies diligently attack the flimsy forensic and eyewitness evidence used to convict Miller. A conspiracy subplot related to one of Post's cases, involving especially sadistic bad guys and an international angle, feels out of place. Readers who like their legal thrillers dosed with ethical ambiguities should look elsewhere.
Customer Reviews
The Guardians
A captivating page turner. A brilliant story told mostly in the first person. I loved it!