Books
Conviction

by Julia Dahl
Minotaur Books, March 2017, $25.99

It is 1992, nearly a year after the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn, New York, that pitted the black and Orthodox Jewish communities against each other. An uneasy peace reigns, but on the night of July 4, Malcom and Sabrina Davis, along with their foster daughter, Kenya, are brutally murdered in the neighborhood, the gunshots masked by the sound of erupting fireworks. When their 16-year-old foster son, DeShawn Perkins, is convicted of the murders based on a coerced confession and a suspect eyewitness identification, the case is closed.

Twenty-two years later, Rebekah Roberts, a perennially single, ambitious, and determined contract reporter for the tabloid New York Tribune, hears about DeShawn’s case when a letter from him surfaces saying, “I didn’t do it.” Always looking for the big story that will get her out of the Trib and into a big paper like the Times, she begins digging and finds discrepancies in the flimsy case: DeShawn’s girlfriend claimed he’d been with her all night, but was not called to the stand; the eyewitness, whom Rebekah tracks down, admits she was lying; and a retired Jewish cop (and her estranged mother’s boyfriend), who was involved in the long-ago investigation, is reluctant to talk about the case, as are the leaders of the Jewish community. The deeper she digs and the more roadblocks that are thrown in her way, the more she’s convinced of DeShawn’s innocence.

In this third of Julia Dahl’s Rebekah Roberts books, the author has written a gritty page-turner with plenty of twists and lots of atmosphere. The story jumps seamlessly between the time of the murders and the present. This is a must-read for not only crime fiction lovers, but anyone who enjoys a good whodunit.

Sharon Magee
Teri Duerr
5687
Dahl
March 2017
conviction
25.99
Minotaur Books