Book Review Friday!! Oh wait, I don’t think that is a thing….well now it is. This one was called Betrayal of Justice by Mark Bello (if you remember, my last review was for Mark’s other book Betrayal of Faith). I enjoyed some cider while I read this one on the backyard patio.
Synopsis: High-profile attorney Zachary Blake returns in this action-packed legal and political thriller, representing a desperate client who tried to solve a crime, only to find herself charged with murder.
A new president, determined to “make America pure again,” is elected and inaugurated and a white nationalist, inspired by the new president’s hateful rhetoric, firebombs a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan. After Arya Khan, a young Muslim woman, believes that the local police are not serious about solving the crime, she does some investigating of her own. Arya identifies a suspect and follows him, only to become a witness to his brutal murder after police find her standing over the body, holding a bloody knife. When Arya is arrested for the murder, she and her family turn to Zachary Blake.
Blake races against time to prove her innocence before the police complete their investigation. At the same time, a white supremacist group tries to cover up any connection to the crime and the new president seeks to use the case to jumpstart his Muslim deportation effort.
This was the second legal thriller I have read and I have to say I am really being drawn into the genre. Mark Bello continues to keep me entertained with his character of Zachary Blake. In fact, almost all the characters from the first book made an appearance in this one.
There was a very obvious villain which was the new president of the United States. He was essentially Trump ( I am fairly certain the author created this character based on Trump) and made all the same promises during his campaign. The white supremacist groups wanted to help this president achieve his goals by carrying out some of them on their own. One being the firebombing of a Muslim mosque.
The main character is Arya Khan. She gets herself in quite a mess when she tries to follow the potential suspect of the firebombing to his home and witnesses him being murdered by another white supremacist. She goes to help him and gets caught by the police hovering over his dead body. Enter Zachary Blake to save the day by representing her in court.
The novel takes some intense turns and has quite a finale. I was loving all the technical law terms again. It feels like I learn the process of the judicial court system as I read this book :).
I was very fond of the theme of the book which was inclusivity. Basically, it was anti-Trump and stating that we should treat each other equally because we are all mankind and life is better without discrimination. I fully support this notion and will get behind a book that fights back against bigotry.
The only con I would have for this book was that Arya was spelled “Ayra” a couple times at the beginning of the book so at first, I had no idea if her name was Arya or Ayra. But after Chapter 2, she was called Arya the rest of the book so it settled itself out.
Overall, it was a great book that was captivating from start to finish. I won’t say anything about the outcome of Arya’s case so that you can read it and find out for yourself!
What are your thoughts on legal thrillers? Have you read this genre before? If not, I think you should try it out 🙂
Book Rating: 4/5
You can find the book on Amazon!
Disclaimer: This book was sent to me in physical format by the author to read and give an honest review.
