Stacey Abrams (Doubleday)
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 stars)
I can still feel the adrenalin pumping through my body from reading the last chapters of Stacey Abrams’s first thriller, While Justice Sleeps. This conspiracy story with a legal and medical edge is complex yet riveting. Its convoluted plot takes the reader from the upper echelons of the White House to the dusty basements of the Pentagon, twisting through the action to a riveting conclusion.
When Justice Howard Wynn makes a surprising speech at a university’s commencement ceremony, whispers are already stirring of paranoid delusions and his ability to continue as a Supreme Court Justice. This is just the beginning. Merely days later, he falls into a coma and the country is shocked to discover that Avery Keene, his law clerk, has been awarded power of attorney at Wynn’s explicit request.
While Justice Sleeps follows Avery, a young Black woman with a brilliant mind who is just as baffled as everyone else at her new responsibility. As she begins looking for answers, she only finds more questions, which seem to centre around the Supreme Court’s impending decision on a controversial biotech merger. Together with Wynn’s estranged son, her best friend from college, and Wynn’s lawyer, she embarks on a journey to solve a seemingly endless stream of puzzles and clues laid out for her by Wynn, leading her to uncover a conspiracy that will put her at the centre of a deadly power struggle.
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