From a former New Orleans public defender comes a gritty and thrilling interrogation of crime, violence, and the limits of justice in the chaotic times after Hurricane Katrina…
A 16-year-old confesses to the murder of a local celebrity—a hero of New Orleans’s shaky post-storm recovery... The boy’s father, doing life in prison on the installment plan for a series of minor offenses, will do anything to save him...
Enter Ben Alder, a carpetbagging attorney (and former rabbinical seminary student) who has drifted down to New Orleans. He winds up defending them both.
Ben and his partner, Boris, are public defenders obsessed with redeeming their case history of failures, and willing to do anything to protect their clients. As Ben tries to disrupt a corrupt and racist criminal justice system that believes an inexplicable crime has been solved, he confronts his own legacy of loss and faith. And as the novel hurtles towards its tragic, redemptive conclusion, Ben finds himself an onlooker and a perpetrator where he thought he was the hero.
A riveting and propulsive story about loyalty and grief, Seraphim is also an unflinching cross-examination of a broken legal system; a heartbreaking portrait of a beautiful, lost city, filled with children who kill and are killed; and a discomforting reflection on privilege, prejudice, and power.
Seraphim is a very accomplished debut novel from Joshua Perry, a former public defender in New Orleans. It's a riveting glimpse into the American justice (or lack thereof) system and it's a sobering, thought-provoking novel.
My heart went out to 16-year-old Robert Johnson who confessed to murder, without really knowing what he was doing. The police really took advantage of his youth and inexperience and before you know it Robert is in jail awaiting trial. It made me feel so angry that the police are so blinkered that they're just happy for someone to be convicted for the crime rather than finding out whether they actually did it. This is people's lives they're playing with just to hit their arrest and conviction targets!
I was fascinated by the whole court system set out in the novel and I loved the public defenders: Ben and Boris. Although I often didn't approve of their methods, I think they cared about their clients. So much so it often led them into danger. It certainly made me grateful that we don't have the right to bear arms in the UK!
Dark, gritty and incredibly thought-provoking, Seraphim is a wonderful debut novel and a highly recommended read for anyone who likes legal thrillers.
I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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