Mystery? Legal Thriller? How should this book be classified or described? I do not know. But I can say it was good!!!

The author -Mark Gimenez- was suggested to me by several people to me including my local librarian and members of my mystery book discussion group. He is a Texas author and The Color of Law was his first book.

There is a murder in the book - the son of a United States Senator/potential presidential candidate. The accused is a prostitute / drug user. A. Scott Fenney is a lawyer for a big firm in Dallas. He is introduced in the book when he is telling jokes and making a speech in front of some other lawyers. He is campaigning to become the state bar president. Little does he know how this speech is going to change his life because a federal judge is at the luncheon where he is making this speech. This federal judge appoints him to be the lawyer for the accused murderer mentioned earlier. Representing the accused is a conflict for the firm he works for. Refusing to jeopardizes the firm's future cases in this judge's court. Continuing this case will bring unwanted publicity for the Senator and that is not good for the firm.

Scott does everything he can think of in order to get out of the predicament he is in - but to no avail. He finally accepts the position he is in and the results are disastrous on his life. He loses his job, his wife, his house, and his cars. And it appears he is going to lose the case as well. All this is hard for somebody who has thrived on making his life a success. Most of the focus of the book is on the time between this appointment as defense and before the trial actually begins. It is during the trial when everything seems almost hopeless that Scott finally realizes the truth about his client and the murder. He had assumed his client was responsible but he was obligated to defend her. He finally realizes she is not responsible and must uncover the truth in order to free his client. Well he succeeds and frees his client but his (and his daughter's) life has been forever changed.

Fiction? Yes. But believable. I will read the other books he has written - The Abduction and The Perk.