Act Of God - Tapa blanda

It's all as topical as today's headlines and told at a journalistic gallop, tempered by Sloan's intelligence, humanity and gift for characterisation. (IRELAND ON SUNDAY)

A bomb destroys a medical centre in Seattle, killing over a hundred staff and patients. While no-one claims responsibility, the centre has been the target of anti-abortionists and the authorities are sure that pro-life campaigners are behind the attack, a view that is swiftly reinforced when various pieces of evidence lead them to arrest Lieutenant Corey Hamlin, whose wife aborted his child when he was away at sea. Dana McAuliffe is asked to defend Hamlin, a task she instinctively wants to decline, but when she meets the accused man she quickly discerns that the case against him is far from water-tight and that he is in all probablity innocent. As the trial draws closer she also realises that both she and her client are being manipulated by political forces with scant regard for justice: they are wanting the trial to be on the abortion issue itself and are quite prepared to drag in her own life and secrets to get the result they want. With her personal and professional life on the line, as well as trying to keep an innocent man from the electric chair, Dana has to find the real perpetrator of the bombing outrage if they are to have any chance of survival.