Trial
-
-
4.1 • 53 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
Trial confirms Richard North Patterson’s place as “our most important author of popular fiction.”
In a propulsive narrative that culminates in a nationally televised murder case, Trial explores America’s most incendiary flashpoints of race.
A Black eighteen-year-old voting rights worker, Malcolm Hill, is stopped by a white sheriff’s deputy on a dark country road in rural Georgia. His single mother, Allie, America’s leading voting rights advocate, restlessly awaits his return before police inform her that Malcolm has been arrested for murder. In Washington D.C., the rising, young, white congressman Chase Brevard of Massachusetts is watching the morning news with his girlfriend, only to find his life transformed in a single moment by the appearance of Malcolm’s photograph. Suddenly all three are enveloped in a media firestorm that threatens their lives—especially Malcolm’s.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Patterson (Eden in Winter) returns with an earnest if overwrought legal drama. Malcolm Hill—a young Black man whose mother, Allie, a Georgia voting rights advocate who will remind readers of Stacey Abrams and whose work has attracted death threats on the family—is driving after midnight, slightly drunk. A racist deputy, George Bullock, pulls him over on an isolated road. After Bullock spots a loaded gun on the front seat, he grabs it. A struggle ensues and Bullock is fatally shot. Malcolm is charged with Bullock's murder, and his prosecution becomes a national sensation and something of a political football involving incriminating text messages, revelations about Malcolm's parentage, and adversaries including a right-wing congresswoman. Though Patterson offers a clear-eyed view of the area where the Hills live, describing it as tainted by "decades of bad history... once a cradle of slavery, so dangerous for Blacks," the mostly unsurprising plot drags on longer than necessary, and the clunky writing doesn't help. This one's for Patterson diehards only.
Customer Reviews
The other publishers were right
You wrote in The Wall Street Journal that this book was rejected by many publishers because you are white, writing about blacks thus culturally misappropriating them. They are right but not for that reason. You hijacked black characters to give a voice to your wealthy, patronizing political crowd’s idolization of blacks and hatred for white people and for those whose political views differ from yours. So, you are just lucky you found a publisher for your blatant propaganda.
Stick to Lawyering
The best parts of this book were always in the courtroom. The dialogue was crisp and the action moved along briskly. The side story romance seemed cerebral and incredible; it lacked passion; it lacked the intense hunger that gnaws at the souls of two people who will always feel incomplete by the other’s absence…It didn’t matter to me if they starved because the author presented a shallow case, an inferior replication of an authentic “forevermore” love.