It begins with a nude body in a river, then a phone message: "Bobby, I need you." These two events change the direction of Barbara Holloway's life.

Barbara had given up the law five years before, but she's still "death qualified," still able to defend clients in Oregon who face the death penalty if convicted. And now her lawyer father needs her back in the arena to defend Nell Kendricks, who's been indicted for the murder of her estranged husband, Lucas Kendricks.

But did she do it? After not seeing him for seven years? And where was Lucas all that time? Ultimately, the small-town courtroom is where the truth can be found--if one can spot it through the blinding maelstrom of injustice, confusion, chaos, reality, and love....

"A book not about ideas but about the impact of ideas... The ending, which I found both surprising and believable, makes good on all her promises." --Gerald Jonas, The New York Times Book Review

Kurd Laßwitz Preis 1997