“Rufus Harms has been in a military prison for 25 years of a life sentence for killing a young girl. But he's been having flashbacks, and remembers now what really happened. So he sends an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Michael Fiske, a Supreme Court clerk, finds the appeal, which doesn't follow the proper procedures and should be turned down, but something about it interests him, so he takes it with him to check it out. One of the calls he makes is to his semi-estranged brother John, who's an ex-cop turned defense lawyer.
Before John returns the call, though, Michael is killed, and Sarah Evans, the Supreme Court clerk Michael had proposed to shortly before his death, contacts him, and they begin an investigation that brings them closer together and deeper in danger.
I really enjoyed the conspiracy plot, but the backstory and the Supreme Court tutorial went on too long and interrupted the story too much. It was interesting, but it really wasn't part of the story.
The romance plot, too, bugged me in spots. I had a very hard time understanding why Michael would propose to Sarah, when they'd only dated casually and hadn't even slept together. I also had trouble believing that Sarah fell in love with John at first glance.
But overall, the complex conspiracy and John's complex character saved the story for me.”