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While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

Doubleday, 384 pages, $28

Author Stacey Abrams is a lawyer and a political force in Georgia. She is also the writer of romance novels. “While Justice Sleeps” is her first fiction venture out of that genre. (But not really. There is a promise of romance, but there is no hankey-pankey.) 

Avery Keene has the coveted position of clerk to a Supreme Court Justice. That justice, Howard Wynn, travels to his own drummer, has a high standard for himself and others, and is brilliant. Avery is proud to have such a mentor. Then one day she receives the news that Wynn has fallen into a coma and that she, Avery Keene, just out of law school and with an addict for a mother, has been appointed his legal guardian. What about his ex-wife? His son? No, it is Avery who holds his life in her hands.

Abrams has another storyline running through and it’s not obvious what it has to do with Justice Wynn or Avery, except it might be Wynn’s vote on a case before the court that determines whether a corporate merger between an American biogenetics company and an Indian biotech company will be allowed. The case is in limbo because Wynn is comatose. 

Abrams has plotted a convoluted thriller. People are dying. There are several attempts on Avery’s life. The big question is why she has become a target. There is pressure on her to resign Wynn from the court, there is pressure for her to disconnect Wynn’s medical devices, there is pressure for her to take care of her wayward mother. And to repeat: Why does someone want to kill her?

Avery has an odd group of people she thinks she can trust: her roommate, a doctor; Judge Wynn’s estranged son; Wynn’s lawyer; and maybe an FBI agent. It’s crazy-making!

As it is with most thrillers, this plot relies on a premise that stretches the imagination. The politics of the book doesn’t resemble (too much) what is currently happening. It's definitely make-believe.

I wish I could say this was a great book, because I admire Stacey Abrams to infinity and beyond. However, it was an unremarkable, albeit competently written, book. There were flashes of interesting character development and tension, but nothing was sustained.