Bleedout — Joan Brady

"Watch your back most
carefully when someone you
trust steps behind you."
Even after Hugh Freyl lost his sight he was invincible. But late one night, in the library of the elite law firm that bears his name, he was beaten to death. The obvious suspect is David Marion, a convicted killer from the inner city. Hugh, the scion of the richest and most influential family in Springfield, Illinois, had orchestrated David's release from prison and outraged his family and friends by making the young man his protege. Now, in the eyes of Hugh's circle, David's criminal past fits him perfectly for the murderer's role. It makes no sense for David to have killed his teacher, liberator and friend. Yet, if he did not, who did?

With no one to stand up for him, and armed only with the criminal skills he honed in prison and the savage fury of a cornered man, David must fight alone. But is he battling to prove his innocence or to hide his guilt?

In Springfield nothing is what it seems, and the more David struggles to clear himself, the closer he gets to the snake pit of ambition and greed poisoning the social and political fabric of the city. Was Hugh all he appeared to be? Who was he protecting and why? Could this most upright of men have involved his firm in shady financial dealings? To find the answers, David must confront his violent past and the uncertainty of his future.

Unraveling with startling reversals and visceral detail and as mesmerizing as the work of Scott Turow, Bleedout is a tense, psychological tour de force. It is charged with insights into betrayal and jealousy so stark that they call into question the values and presumptions by which we judge others guilty and ourselves innocent.