While Justice Sleeps

I read this book a while back and just realized I hadn't posted about it. This is rising Democratic star Stacey Abrams' first dip into fiction writing after two non-fiction books.   The premise is that a Supreme Court Justice, irascible Howard Wynne, has slipped into a coma leaving his law clerk, Avery Keene--not his estranged son or wife--as his legal guardian. When Avery gets a strange call from the woman who had been his home health nurse, she goes to see her and finds her murdered. The stakes rise from there as people try to discredit Avery, the wife tries to have the judge taken off life support, and the son offers to throw his lot in with Avery to figure out what is going on. Justice Wynn was likely the swing vote on a pending case involving a biotech firm, a case that is at the heart, we learn of a worldwide conspiracy.

I love this summary from The New York Times : "The seemingly misanthropic and possibly paranoid Associate Justice Howard Wynn insults the president of the United States to his face; bemoans the ravages of Boursin’s syndrome, an apparently degenerative brain disease that is sapping his mental acuity; inveighs against the capacity of humans to deploy scientific breakthroughs for dangerous ends; refers to himself as a threat to national security; harries a nurse who has been blackmailed into spying on him; designs chess-related clues to his investigation of undescribed matters in a case pending before the court; and sequesters them for one of his law clerks to decode — all before lapsing into a coma induced by what may be a suicide attempt. Whereupon the nurse, contrary to instructions from her unknown blackmailer, saves Wynn’s life by calling 911." They admire her ability to weave multiple threads of plot together, but bemoan her superficial character development.

Booklist calls it a "gripping legal thriller," and I agree that, for all its flaws (see Kirkus) once started, you will want to finish this book.