Do you believe everyone deserves a defense, no matter how heinous the crime might be? Is murder ever justified?
Those aren’t easy questions to answer—or maybe for you, they are. Perhaps you believe there’s never an excuse for murder, and the harshest punishment should prevail. Or perhaps you’re more apt to peek between the folds of right and wrong and consider the grayer areas of justice.
Over twenty years ago, I was a young criminology student intent on finishing my degree and going to law school to put away the bad guys. I took a Law & Society class at Saint Louis University taught by an adjunct professor who was a St. Louis City judge. In his classroom, while taking breaks to sign warrants and speak to police officers, Judge Edwards told us that everyone deserves a defense. Without a proper defense, the criminal justice system doesn’t have a shot at working—and we know how flawed it is today.
His words planted a seed and all these years later became the inspiration for my newest novel.
In this novel, I challenge the reader’s idea of what justice is and isn’t. Although this book is entirely fictional, some of the murderers Luna Goldwyn represents are a compilation of people I’ve known and worked with, not as a prosecutor but as a former legal advocate and social worker for abused women and children—sometimes even for murderers.
The Murder Lawyer is the story of a young woman’s belief that everyone’s story matters, even those who’ve taken a life.
Luna Goldwyn is a young criminal defense attorney with an unswerving belief in justice who thinks she’s ready to take on a death penalty case dumped in her lap at the eleventh hour, but as she gains notoriety in the press as THE MURDER LAWYER, her “killer” client list grows larger and so does the target on her family’s back.
Luna must decide what she’s fighting for: justice for her clients or her family’s life.
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