Trial confirms Richard North Pattersonâs place as âour most important author of popular fiction.â
In a propulsive narrative that culminates in a nationally televised murder case, Trial explores Americaâs most incendiary flashpoints of race.
A Black eighteen-year-old voting rights worker, Malcolm Hill, is stopped by a white sheriffâs deputy on a dark country road in rural Georgia. His single mother, Allie, Americaâs leading voting rights advocate, restlessly awaits his return before police inform her that Malcolm has been arrested for murder. In Washington D.C., the rising, young, white congressman Chase Brevard of Massachusetts is watching the morning news with his girlfriend, only to find his life transformed in a single moment by the appearance of Malcolmâs photograph. Suddenly all three are enveloped in a media firestorm that threatens their livesâespecially Malcolmâs.