THE MURDER TRIAL by James Patterson and Nancy Allen

4 stars

Patterson and Allen’s latest focuses on Janelle Thompson, a black 18-year-old girl on trial for the murder of her adoptive white, politically active parents, Missouri Senator Ted Thompson and his wife campaign strategist Mary. Ted and Mary have gone missing, their bodies never found, and all the evidence points to Janelle. The novels splits into two alternating timelines: the current trial and the events leading up to the night of Janelle’s parents’ disappearance.

Themes of Southern racism insidiously thread themselves throughout the novel- from the current day trial in which Janelle feels hopeless that there’s nothing to do to convince people of her innocence. At the trial, she has an indifferent, overworked public defender mostly going through the motions, a white prejudiced judge who seems already convinced of her guilt, the jury made up of all white with only one black juror, a jailer hellbent on torturing her, and other inmates hoping to turn in supposed guilty jailhouse  confessions in order to lighten their own sentences.

In the past scenes of events leading up to the Thompson’s disappearance, Janelle gets relentlessly bullied in school which ends up in a physical fighter, lies to her parents and the police to cover up spending the night with a boyfriend she’s not supposed to see and who might have gotten himself mixed up with drugs, and working on her considerable marksmanship skills at a gun range to release tension. Thinking her parents are on a long political fundraising weekend away Janelle throws a party which grows out of control- all of this making her seem a callous, angry girl gone awry.

With all the odds stacked against her, and her inner anger overwhelming her grief, Janelle makes it tough to be on her side. Thus even as a reader, you find yourself unsympathetic and making negative judgments against Janelle until the truth leaks out. Which might really be point of this mystery: all the prejudice still stacked up against a young black girl in today’s society.

Thanks to Little Brown and Company and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.