With While Justice Sleeps, Stacey Abrams (Lead from the Outside) marks her first foray into the political thriller genre--bringing her experience with courts, politics and the justice system to a world of imagined suspense and intrigue with great success.
Supreme Court Justice Howard Wynn has few family ties to speak of, just an estranged son and a soon-to-be-divorced second wife. He has dedicated his life, instead, to his role on the Supreme Court, and to his definition of justice. "He felt equally dismissive of willful ignorance--his description of the modern press--and smug stupidity, his bon mot for politicians." Avery Keene serves as Justice Wynn's law clerk, overworked and underpaid while juggling care for her mother, who suffers from drug addiction and pops in and out of Avery's life.
When Justice Wynn slips into an inexplicable coma, it comes as a great surprise to everyone--Avery included--when Wynn's papers name Avery his legal guardian. And as people around Justice Wynn start to disappear or turn up dead, Avery quickly realizes she's in deeper than she thought possible. She is drawn into an international plot surrounding the possible merger of an American tech company and Indian genetics research lab in a Supreme Court case, for which Justice Wynn was set to be the swing vote--prior to his coma.
There are a lot of layers to the central mystery of While Justice Sleeps, which can feel labyrinthine at times--both to readers following Avery's pursuits, and to Avery tracing a scavenger hunt-like trail of Justice Wynn's clues about the case at hand. But a bit of patience is more than worth it, as Abrams weaves a suspenseful tale of politics and power that feels grounded in the realities of American politics--even while the case and story surrounding it are purely fiction. "America is a contradictory and precocious country, sir," Avery recalls telling Justice Wynn prior to his coma. "We have, in a very short period of time, managed to commit venal sins against our own people and offer the world repeat examples of exceptionalism. Americans are greedy, brilliant, ambitious, and compassionate."
This kind of reflection on the very real state of American politics serves to set While Justice Sleeps apart in a crowded genre. Abrams deftly combines a clever, follow-the-clues story with an urge to consider questions of governance, power and the human cost of policy decisions that seem far-fetched, but can carry grave consequences for everyday people around the world. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm
Shelf Talker: Stacey Abrams's first political thriller combines a scavenger hunt for clues with reflections on the state of American politics in a clever, suspenseful novel.