GREAT READS

A Cure for Night

Justin Peacock.

This book is a modern version of an old noir mystery complete with a main male character with a tortured past, and a gritty, dystopian view of justice and human nature.  Instead of a private detective, our main character is a public defender in Brooklyn, New York.   Joel Deveraux, originally a high powered attorney with a major New York law firm, washes up in the public defender's office after the death of female colleague exposes his budding heroin addiction to his employers. Still struggling to set his life to rights again, Joel is assigned second chair to a controversial murder in which a white college student is gunned down while doing sociological research in one of the borough's toughest housing projects.  Teamed up with the cynical veteran defender, Myra Goldstein, Joel finds himself knee deep in a case that grows more complex by the hour.  The innocent college student may not be so innocent after all, and Joel and Myra find that their client isn't the only person with motive for murder.  Was the intended target the college student, or the drug dealer who was also injured in the shooting?  While dark and moody, this book is captivating, and Justin Peacock wraps his audience up in the world of his characters and won't let you go until the very last sentence. This book is a perfect read for fans of classic noir fiction such as Raymond Chandler's work, The Big Sleep, and films such as Double Indemnity.  Fans of more modern detective and courtroom dramas such as The Wire and Law and Order will also feel at home with this legal thriller. Readers who enjoy modern authors like Michael Connelly and John Sandford may also like A Cure for the Night's noir legal procedural.
 

Recommended by Megan Willan