Trial is Richard North Patterson’s timely return to novel-writing, timely because of the subject matter of the story – a young Black man charged with murder of a White deputy in rural Georgia in the context of the rise of White Nationalism in politics. Mixed in as the bones of the non-law plot is this: During college, Chase, a born-wealthy White liberal Congressman had a love affair with Allie, a born-poor Black social activist from Georgie. Allie returned to Georgie to fight for social justice, Chase stayed in the Massachusetts to pursue a career in politics. Allie’s 18-year-old son Malcolm, who helps with Allie’s voter registration campaign that tipped the balance in the last elections, is the boy arrested. And it turns out, unknown to Chase, he’s the product of the love affair between Allie and Chase. Chase comes to Georgia and gets involved in the high publicity trial at great political risk, establishes a relationship with Malcolm, and rekindles the flame with Allie.
The political context of the story dominates. Patterson has a 5-page Afterword in which he describes extensive research he conducted to write the book. I didn’t buy the affair between Chase in Allie or the father-son stuff. Kirkus Reviews says the novel sucks because the characters are weakly-developed tropes. I thought the trial part, which begins about halfway through, was well done, especially the cross-examination of witnesses (except for an unnecessary minor twist at the end). Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews//trial-patterson/
