The least among us A novel

Florio's solid sequel to 2021's The Truth of It All finds public defender Julia Geary, who works in the small community of Duck Creek in an unspecified state, dealing with a good deal of personal and professional stress. For starters, her lover, Dom Parrish, is faced with the prospect of losing custody of his teenage daughter after the girl walked in on Julia and Dom having sex, a possibility that threatens the couple's relationship. Meanwhile, Julia's excited by her first murder case. Ray Belmar has been charged with bashing in the head of theater owner William Williams, but Julia's convinced that Ray was too drunk to have carried out the murder. When the case is reassigned, a frustrated Julia decides to investigate on her own. She finds a potential link between Williams and a state legislator whose recent overdose death was considered either accidental or intentional. Logical plot twists that keep the reader engaged more than make up for a contrivance at the climax. Fans of John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy series will be pleased. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Agency. (Dec.)

A public defender fights to clear her favorite client of a murder charge. Julia Geary has spent all too many days in court on behalf of Ray Belmar, charged with a never-ending assortment of low-level offenses: public disturbance, lewdness, indecent exposure. Now that he's been charged with fatally beating a fellow resident of Duck Creek's riverside homeless encampment, Julia is ready to test her mettle as a champion of the neediest of her fellow citizens. Since her boss is reluctant to have her go it alone, he assigns her law school intern Marie St. Clair to help with the paperwork. And just in case it's not bad enough to see the desk that used to belong to her best friend, Claudette Greene, occupied by an eager-beaver law student, Julia learns that Chief Public Defender Bill Decker has hired pricey private defense attorney Tim Saunders to help her prep for trial. Tim's strategy is simple: Persuade Ray to plead guilty. But Julia is pretty sure he isn't. She has her work cut out for her: In a landscape littered with well-wishers and naysayers, she has to figure out who's really on her side and who would just as soon see her go down in flames. A chilling look at a legal system ill-equipped to serve the most vulnerable. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.