while justice sleeps

While Justice Sleeps is written by Stacey Abrams, who served for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven of those years as Democratic Leader. Then in 2018, Abrams was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, which she might have won if not for alleged irregularities in the polling. Those irregularities became the impetus for Abrams to create her Fair Fight organization.

According to her Abrams for Governor website, which is still up, she has also authored eight romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery. In the front matter of Justice lists only two books by Abrams, and they don't sound like romance novels. Justice has a little boy-girl tension, but its not a romance novel. By contrast, take this line from the description of Secrets and Lies on the Harper Collins website: "She just witnessed her uncle’s murder, she’s running for her life, and now Dr. Katelyn Lyda is face-to-face with a breathtaking man who could be her salvation. It’s too bad [he] is one of the bad guys." cue heavy breathing

So you get the idea. nom de plume indeed.

This book had a nice pace, and the characters were nicely developed, and how they reacted to the things around them was mostly on point. Every now and again, and author needs to ask us to suspend disbelieve more than they normally would. Typically its with more outlandish stuff, fantasy and SciFi, but when it happens in a modern day set crime drama, it needs to be reasonable. A current day novel is essentially a 'what if?' scenario; if the the response to that what if, is a resounding 'never in a million years,' then the author has asked for too much. Abrams didn't go that far, but some things were a stretch. I also think there may be a plot hole. I'm not the most careful reader, but at one point our protagonist, Avery Keene contacted a mystery person who gave a false name. A chapter or so later, Avery knew who that mysterious person was, but how she figured that out, I don't think was covered in the text. if you've read this, and I missed it, let me know in the comments below

That said, While Justice Sleeps was a fun read, and an original plot line. I read this in just a few days, so that's always an indicator of a fun read. I'm under the impression we may not have seen the last of Ms. Keene either. Nice work Ms. Abrams, and go get 'em.