A small-town attorney takes on prejudice and corruption in this powerful legal thriller.
Small-town lawyer Bocephus Haynes comes home late one night to find District Attorney General Helen Lewis waiting for him. Her ex-husband has just been killed. She’s about to be arrested for his murder. And she wants Bo to represent her.
There’s a lot working against them. Just before his death, Helen’s … before his death, Helen’s ex-husband threatened to reveal a dark secret from her past. Bo has been in a tailspin since his wife’s death. What’s more, his whole life has been defined by a crime committed against his family, and he continues to face prejudice as the only African American litigator in Pulaski, Tennessee.
Bo’s back is against the wall, and Helen resigns herself to a dismal fate—but a stunning discovery throws everything into chaos. There’s a chance for justice, but to achieve it, the cost might be too much for Bo to bear.
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Having been a fan of John Gresham for a number of years, I decided to give this author a try.
Disgraced attorney Bochephus Haynes returns to his home town of Pulaski Tennessee to defend his friend, District Attorney Helen Lewis, who is accused of murdering her ex-husband. Crime and corruption know no bounds and this small-town setting is no exception.
While the book contains more scenes involving the investigation rather than the courtroom, it doesn’t make it any less of a legal thriller. The story is compelling, the action well-paced, and the characters well-developed.
And the ending? Well, let’s just say it was quite a surprise.
Although some reviewers were turned off by some of the backstory, not having read any of Bailey’s earlier series, I didn’t find this intrusive.
Legacy of Lies is the first of the Bocephus Haynes series, but could easily be read as a stand-alone novel. I look forward to the next book, scheduled for release in 2021.
Attorney Robert Bailey knows how to write a dynamic, riveting legal thriller with depth and emotional integrity. He’s proved this before with his award-winning, best-selling McMurtrie and Drake legal series. He is an author who knows how to put the thrill back in legal thriller, with full blown action, unexpected twists, and dramatic climaxes.
With Legacy of Lies, Bailey’s newest book, he proves he is at the top of his game. While prior books had adversaries threatening the lives of protagonists, this time a dominant threat to the main two characters comes from within. Which is not to say they aren’t in danger from outside forces, only that the enemy within is as dangerous as the enemy without. This makes Legacy of Lies even more compelling and richer for the deep humanity Bailey captures in a finely wrought thriller and stirring story of redemption.
Helen Evangeline Lewis, aka The General, is the district attorney general for a four-county area in Tennessee. Attractive, confident, and tough, she is haunted by a devastating event in her past that causes a kind of PTSD fugue at a critical junction in the story. Her ex-husband, Butch Renfroe, threatens to reveal his version of that event in order to blackmail her. He wants her to drop statutory and forcible rape charges against Michael Zannick, who is powerful, unscrupulous, and rich. She recognizes Butch must be in Zannick’s clutches but refuses to drop the charges. In the heated argument that follows, she threatens to kill her ex-husband. Her threat is overheard by her assistant district attorney.
The night after their argument, someone kills Butch—and a neighbor witnesses Helen coming and going from his house. Traces of his blood are found in her vehicle. Her DNA is found on the victim. In short order, the local sheriff reluctantly accepts that he must arrest Helen, despite his long-time respect for her. It might all be circumstantial, but it’s a tight case establishing motive, means and opportunity.
Knowing arrest is imminent, Helen seeks out Bo Hayes to be her defense attorney. She believes that only Bo—with his courtroom skills, personal dedication and fierce drive—can save her. Bo is a tall, broad-shouldered black man who gained early fame as a football player under legendary coach Bear Bryant at The University of Alabama. However, when Helen finds him, Bo is a drunken mess, having just lost custody of his two children to their grandparents. Bo has never recovered from witnessing the murder of his beloved wife a year before and has slid into a self-pitying, useless remnant of the “wide-ass open” attorney he used to be.
Bo must not only find a defense for Helen, he must redeem himself. Increasingly the odds seem stacked against them both.
A stunning discovery, a triple twist, and dramatic courtroom scenes all make for a riveting, satisfying read in what might well be Bailey’s best book to date. While the twists come as a surprise, they also seem inevitable once the shock wears off—and that is a hard thing for an author to pull off, but Bailey does it exceptionally well.
Legacy of Lies is a grand story with a morality tale vibe, gripping and thrilling throughout. It showcases Bailey once more as a writer who knows how to keep the suspense high, the pacing fast, the narrative strong, the characters compellingly complex, and his plot full of white-knuckle tension and twists.
Legacy of Lies is a well-written, enjoyable, character-driven suspense thriller with interesting, multi-dimensional characters who make this a compelling and richly human tale. Bocephus Haynes is a fascinating protagonist—an appealing underdog lawyer who has the courage to confront powerful forces while simultaneously grappling with his personal demons. Bocephus is a character you grow to love and root for, yet want to shake some sense into when his internal demons drive him into poor or bewildering actions or decisions. The story has an interesting, socially relevant plot, complete with several unexpected twists and turns, for which Bailey has subtly laid the necessary groundwork to prevent them from becoming jarring moments that take readers out of the story. Well done! If you are a devotee of boilerplate courtroom drama, this may not be for you. While plenty of action takes place in a courtroom setting, Bailey avoids lengthy passages of meticulously-rendered trial description that stalls the forward momentum of some legal thrillers.
I read and or listen to a lot of books, And I do mean a lot. This book was probably one of the best written and best narration that I have listened to. It deserved 10 stars. I love murder mysteries and also romance books. There was no romance in this book And it was still great. I will definitely read and or listen to another book by this author.
As the Novel Proceeds, I Was Kept On Edge
The novel opens with Butch Renfroe with some business associates at the local gentleman’s club discussing show should defend one of them, Michael Zannick, on a serious charge. The group’s opinion is that none of the local lawyers would be able to stand up to the twenty-year veteran, District Attorney General, Helen Lewis. The decide on a local lawyer who has skin in the game, a non-aboveboard business also run out of the club. When the meeting is over, Butch thinks, “I’m a dead man…” Unfortunately for him, he is right!
The opening main storyline deals with the preliminary legal maneuvering, interviewing witnesses, and jumps back in time to fill in information on some of the events leading up to the Butch’s murder. There is a secondary thread of the main character, Bocephus “Bo” Haynes returns to his home town of Pulaski, TN to get his life back together and reopen his law practice. A major impetus for the move is that he is asked to defend, Helen Lewis who believes that she is about to arrested for murdering her ex-husband, Butch. The storyline proceeds from here.
The main storyline has an interesting twist to it. Helen does not want to tell Bo what happened until she knows what the prosecution knows. As the novel proceeds, more and more inculpatory evidence mounts. Then, the plot twists, some at the level I call literary grenades start occurring. My attention was quickly captured and kept all the way to the end. This is my major criterion for a high star rating.
The B-storyline is quite rich. At the start of the novel, Bo is at rock bottom personally and professionally. His wife was murdered, has a criminal record, lost his license to practice law, and now lost custody of this children. This storyline is rich with how Bo battles back and his character is well defined with his interactions with his cousin, the defendant, Helen, the chief deputy sheriff. A C-storyline also quite evident as Bo proceeds through the novel.
There are not any intimate scenes in this novel. Rude language is minimal. Violence is generally described in the less edgy after the fact, but there are several scenes where violence almost bubbles over. I believe that this novel will not be offensive to almost all readers.
As I wrote above, my attention was quickly captured and maintained. I could not stop reading even late into the night. There were not any loose ends at the end, but there WAS A storyline that continues into the second novel of the series. This wasn’t what I call, “Who shot JR,” cliffhanger ending, so it did not bother me. Now, I purchased this novel because I had received an advance reading copy of the next novel and wanted to read the first novel in the series first. I was not disappointed.
Based upon the above, I rate this novel with five stars.
Short on legalese but long on characters and setting. A black lawyer, grieving after his wife’s brutal murder and losing custody of his teen-age children, struggles to get his feet under him by defending a white, female judge who hides crucial information necessary for his defense. She’s arrogant, demanding, and mean. An array of characters who owe the judge for treating them fairly aid the lawyer to “keep on truckin’.” Set in Tennessee, the book deals with a social-legal issue ripped from the headlines. The two conclusions–1 expected, the other mildly surprising–left me wondering if a Book 3 is in the computer.
I enjoyed it so much I ordered the other four books by the author – so assume!
Interesting premise and great characters, but just not my cup of tea.
An Airtight Case: All the Evidence Points to the Defendant
For Mature Readers
Sex – rape described in some disturbing detail, although it could have been worse.
Some strong language
Racial slurs from the kinds of characters we’d expect them from
Action violence
Setting: Small town South where racial prejudice can rear its ugly head at any turn
Bocephus Haynes, probably the best defense lawyer in the county, is approached by District Attorney General Helen Lewis to defend her. She hasn’t been charged yet, but all the evidence is going to suggest that she murdered her ex-husband.
Important to the story is the background information that when he was a youngster, Bo’s dad was lynched by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
As Bo tries to find ANYTHING at all to help defend his new client, he uncovers corruption running deep within the community. Could it be that the organizers behind the corruption and lies have created the perfect frame up for the attorney general?
I found the book to be a true page turner.
Recommended.
This is a story about a man that has really hit the bottom.
What he goes through and what he does surprised me.
There is kind of two or three stories in one and the author weaves them together very nicely.
There are also a few nice twists in the story.