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Attica Locke--a writer and producer of FOX's Empire--delivers an engrossing, complex, and cinematic thriller about crime and racial justice

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist (Mystery/Thriller)
Edgar Award Nominee (Best First Novel)
The Orange Prize for Fiction (Shortlist)

Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl, and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he's long since made peace with his path to the American Dream, carefully tucking away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him.

Houston, Texas, 1981. It's here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. That is, until the night he impulsively saves a drowning woman's life - and opens a Pandora's Box. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate powerbrokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past.

A near-perfect balance of trenchant social commentary, rich characterizations, and action-oriented plot. Attica Locke is] a writer wise beyond her years.?-- Los Angeles Times

Atmospheric. deeply nuanced. akin to George Pelecanos or Dennis Lehane. Subtle and compelling.?-- New York Times