Fatal Convictions

Today was the first day of school! Molly starts her senior year, and Molly is in second grade. Both girls took great pains to pick out just the right first day of school outfit. It was weird today without Mia near me. During the summer, she's my best bud, almost always within shouting range, so not seeing or talking to her for seven hours was strange. She got off the bus announcing that today was "the best day ever!" She loves her teacher, has formed a new club with her girlfriends, and is disappointed that she only has three days of school this week. Looks like it will be a good year.

Fatal Convictions by Randy Singer is a thrilling and intelligent mystery. Alex Madison is trying to fulfill both his father and grandfather's expectations: he's a pastor like his dad, and a lawyer like his grandfather. It makes for an interesting business card and an intriguing hero. He begins working a personal injury case representing a Muslim woman, the wife of an imam who suffered a brain injury after her car was run off the road by a semi-truck, but his case takes a sudden turn when the imam is arrested for being behind the honor killing of a young wife from his congregation for becoming a Christian. All of the evidence points directly to his client, but Alex has a gut feeling that something bigger is going on. His quest to prove his client's innocence will take him from Virginia to a Hezbollah camp in Lebanon and will expose the deepest prejudices Christians have against Muslims, as well as the conflict within Islam itself. Singer is a stand-out writer of legal thrillers, and he just seems to get better and better. His writing is also incredibly intelligent and he takes care to look at both sides of an issue. I think that many readers will be surprised at the nuanced portrayal of Islam by a Christian writer. Just a warning about the book: don't pick it up if you don't have a lot of time to read, because once you start, you won't be able to stop!

Thank you to Side Door Communications for providing me with a copy of this book for review!