While Justice Sleeps (Avery Keene Thriller #1)

by Stacey Abrams

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Stacey Abrams: American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, bestselling non-fiction author AND author of pseudonymously penned romance novels. Can we stop, swoon and repeat right now? Yes. Yes, we can. Because NOW we add THRILLER novelist to her accolades. They say it’s best to write what you know, and we think the title says it all.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From celebrated political figure and bestselling author Stacey Abrams, While Justice Sleeps is a gripping, complexly plotted thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court.

“A first-class legal thriller, favorably compared to many of the best, starting with The Pelican Brief, which it brings to mind. It’s fast-paced and full of surprises—a terrific read." —Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent

Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, is doing her best to hold her strained personal life together. But when the shocking news breaks that Justice Wynn—the cantankerous swing vote on the court—has slipped into a coma, Avery’s life turns upside down.

She learns that Wynn has appointed her to serve as his legal guardian and hold his power of attorney, plunging her into an explosive role she never anticipated. Avery finds that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases before the court—a proposed merger between an American biotech company and an Indian genetics firm, which promises to unleash breathtaking results in the medical field. She also discovers that Wynn suspected a dangerous conspiracy was infiltrating the highest corridors of power in Washington.

As political wrangling intensifies to replace the ailing judge, Avery begins to unravel the carefully constructed, chess-like sequence of clues Wynn left behind for her. This labyrinthine puzzle, which immediately puts her in harm’s way, may ultimately to a stunning truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593310939
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/12/2022
Series:	Avery Keene Series , #1
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	60,374
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

STACEY ABRAMS is the two-time New York Times bestselling author of Our Time Is Now and Lead from the Outside. She served eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as minority leader, and became the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, where she won more votes than any other Democrat in the state's history. She is the founder of Fair Fight, Fair Count, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project—organizations devoted to voting rights and tackling social issues at the state, national, and international levels. Her work played a pivotal role in the 2020 elections for the U.S. presidency and control of the U.S. Senate.

Read an Excerpt

One

Sirens shrilled outside the dingy casement window. The high whines seeped in, piercing sleep with pinpricks of sound. Avery Keene rolled to her side and tugged the lumpy pillow over her head. She continued to drift along the Danube, serenaded by the lead singer of some innocuous boy band clad only in his Calvin Klein finest. The sounds jangled louder, transforming into the insistent chime of a phone ring. Avery flung out a searching hand and fumbled blindly for the cell phone. Green eyes shut tight, she grabbed the device.

“What?”

“Avery, baby.” A rasping cough. A sullen giggle. “It’s Momma.”

The sirens dropped away, leaving a more jarring reality. Wearily, Avery slid up to lean against the wall, braced against a raft of pillows. She hadn’t been able to justify the expense of a headboard yet. One more year. Peeling open tired lids, she tracked the neon flickers against rain-­spattered glass. “Rita. Where are you?”

Another giggle. “Adams Monathalan.”

“Adams Morgan?” With her free hand, she shoved the heavy fall of black away from a smooth, caramel-­toned forehead, the kinky-­curly mass tumbling down bare shoulders squared with tension. Sleep cleared quickly, and she checked the bedside clock. Nearly three on Sunday, no, Monday morning. Figured. Nothing good would be happening for her mother in the Adams Morgan neighborhood at this time of night. After the well-­to-­do retired to their neat row houses, the clubs spewed out partyers looking for hotter action. “Are you in Adams Morgan, Rita?”

Rita Keene harrumphed. “Absolutely. I said so. Adams Morahan.”

Recognizing the rise of belligerence, Avery spoke quickly, tightly. “Are you in jail?”

“Won’t be if you come and give this cutie pie some money.”

Cutie pie? Brows furrowed, Avery puzzled over the statement. If Rita was in jail, arraignment wouldn’t come until morning. Sunday night busts had to wait until the judges arrived for Monday morning calls. But just in case, she asked, “They’ve set your bail? Already?”

A sudden shout forced Rita to raise her voice. “No bail, baby. No jail. Friend’s house. He’s a good friend. I just need to settle up. Can you come by?”

“I’ve told you before, Rita. No more.” For God’s sake, no more.

There was momentary silence. “I’m not getting wasted. I promise. But I have to be good for my word,” her mother wheedled. “I know you can spare a hundred dollars for your mother? That’s all I’m asking. If not, he might get mad.”

“I can’t.”

“Won’t,” Rita corrected. “Stuck-­up bitch. Too good to help your mother out of a jam.” The cajoling tone slid into a string of expletives.

“Rita.” Avery had heard it all before, and she silently recited the ­Al-­Anon mantra, but serenity was a slippery commodity when your mother was holed up in a crack house cursing your birth like a drunken sailor. Hearing a break in the rant, she asked quietly, “Give me an address, and I’ll pick you up.” Hell, she was going to get only four more hours of sleep anyway. Might as well kick off the week with the great whirligig of fun that was her mother. “Momma, where are you?”

“Not gonna tell.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not going to another goddamned rehab. All I need is a hundred. That’s it. Maybe if you took the stick out your ass, you would help your mother out. Just this once.” In the background, a man asked if the daughter was pretty. “Not ugly,” came Rita’s stage whisper reply. “But you want the original, honey, not a secondhand copy. Especially when I can trade you—” The rest ended on a high, desperate laugh.

Heat snapped through Avery’s veins, seared her cheeks. She wanted to disconnect the call, but the shaky laughter signaled that her mother was nearing a crash and worse. Years of training had her tamping down the riot of emotion she swore each time would not return. For an instant, she wondered how different life would be if her father were alive. With his deep brown eyes that crinkled at the corners and his hickory skin stretched tight over a square jawline. His ready patience and easy smile—she’d inherited neither of those traits. Who would Rita have been if he’d survived?

Cutting off the useless musing, she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Dad was dead. Rita was high. And she lived stubbornly in reality. In the dark, she felt around for her tennis shoes and a baseball cap. Luckily, she’d chosen to sleep in running shorts and a tank, a vain attempt to stave off the coming DC summer heat. “Rita—Momma, tell me where you are.”

“No. Stuck-­up little bitch . . .” Just as quickly as the venom poured, sugar followed. “Baby, I didn’t mean that. I love you. My one and only . . . I’m so proud of you. My brilliant lawyer baby. She works at the Supreme Court,” she told the dealer.

“Momma.” Avery bit off the word, her eyes desert dry. She’d grown accustomed to the balancing act, keeping her mother’s demons partitioned away from the world she lived in by day. Bail and rehab versus drafting memos and hunting for precedents. Fighting for patience, she swigged from a bottle of water that sat on her nightstand. The taste of sleep swished for seconds, then disappeared.

“Momma, you there?”

“Where else can I go?” A tiny sob hitched on the line. “Don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“You can go back to the rehab, Momma. I’ll ask them to let you come back.” Again. She’d spent her last chunk of savings on the in-­patient facility in February. Rita had lasted twelve weeks, a personal best. But the fee had cleaned out her accounts and maxed out her cards. She’d gotten the meager balances down, as was her habit, but until she hit pay dirt with a job at a fancy law firm, she’d be living very frugally—especially if Rita wanted to return to rehab. And Avery’s boss forbade interviews until the close of the session, so she had only the illusion of employment to tide her over. “Do you want to try again?”

“At that shithole? No way in hell.” More brittle laughter. “I don’t need to get clean, and I don’t want your fucking charity.”

Which defied the call for money, but Avery knew better than to attempt reason. At this stage, placating worked best. Slipping her feet into the shoes she carried, she squatted to tie the laces tight. No telling if tonight’s excursion would include a flight from danger. Always best to be prepared. “Tell me where you are, Momma.”

“So you can come and preach to me? No way.”

“You have to.” Rising, Avery’s hand slipped into the drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a small knife. It was illegal to carry a switchblade in DC, but old habits had died hard. She didn’t like guns, but she couldn’t afford to go to her mom’s preferred haunts without it. One of the few precious inheritances from her dad that her mom hadn’t pawned along the way. Mother-­of-­pearl handle and their initials engraved on the hilt. Her father’s cosmic joke—Avery Olivia and Arthur Oliver—AOK.

The palm-­sized knife wouldn’t stop a drug fiend, but it might slow one down if she ever had to use it. The weapon went into the pocket of her shorts. “If you don’t tell me where you are, I can’t bring you any money.”

“Really?” Hungry to believe, Rita hissed into the phone, “Gotta come soon, though. Real soon.”

Avery headed for the living room, grabbed her keys, and yanked open the front door. Keys. Cell phone. Wallet! She’d forgotten it. Twisting, she kicked at the closing door and rushed back inside. She juggled the cell, hoping Rita wouldn’t hang up before she could get better directions. The signal would die as soon as she entered the stairwell. “I need an address, Rita. Now.”

“You’ll really come?” The wheedling tone begged for a lie. A promise. “You’ll come for real? Bring me some cash?”

Avery stared at the threadbare wallet on the table and contemplated bringing her last fifty to the addict who’d grudgingly given birth to her twenty-­six years ago. Screw that. She slipped a ten into her pocket and tossed the wallet onto the table. “Sure, Momma. Just tell me where I’m going.”

Editorial Reviews

"Supremely entertaining...A page-turner, plot-driven in the extreme...It succeeds brilliantly."—The Boston Globe

"Stacey Abrams delivers a taut, twisty thriller, drawing the reader into the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court along the strands of a complex web of politics, raw ambition and deadly deception."—Nora Roberts

"While Justice Sleeps is a mesmerizing legal thriller that does the rare thing: It uses the novel to get at the truth. Stacey Abrams is a powerful new voice in fiction."—Michael Connelly

"In While Justice Sleeps, Stacey Abrams firmly establishes herself as a powerful new player in the crime thriller space, with her heroine Avery providing a voice to women everywhere. Twisty, clever and full of surprises, this will be one to watch this Spring. Abrams proves she is not only a force for change in politics but a force to be reckoned with in fiction, too."—Karin Slaughter

"Glossy, gritty, breathlessly suspenseful, effortlessly authentic, and altogether wonderful. Why am I not surprised?”—Lee Child

"A political-legal thriller that should hold the reader rapt from its opening line . . . to the extraordinary climactic courtroom scene that turns the plot upside down with ironic flair and utter conviction."—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Twisty good fun. . . . As the stakes rise, and murderous villains lurk, readers come to understand that horrific moral and ethical boundaries have been crossed. The unfolding morality tale, ‘the labyrinthine game the law demanded,’ plays out in the final fireworks scene at the Supreme Court. Abrams plays it to the hilt."—The Christian Science Monitor

"Abrams’ debut is a pip of a thriller - a sweaty-palm sprint through the hidden corridors of government and the shadowy streets of DC.  I fervently hope she will write many more."—Kathy Reichs

"While Justice Sleeps is one of the best political thrillers I’ve read in years. It checks all the boxes: roller-coaster plot twists and turns, a fascinating look behind the scenes of the Supreme Court and other Washington institutions, nods to the latest trends in tech and medicine, and, most important of all, an utterly compelling main character, Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene. Author Abrams has given us a book that demands to be read in one sitting!"—Jeffery Deaver

"A killer thriller. Loaded with legal intrigue, corrupt politicians, and the history of chess, Abrams proves why the most powerful piece on the board is the Queen. Well played and so much fun."—Brad Meltzer

"While Justice Sleeps is a legal thriller of the highest order. Its crisp prose and high-octane plot call to mind the best of John Grisham, but Avery Keene is a fresh, modern heroine entirely of Abrams' own making. Abrams is now on my 'automatic pre-order' list of authors. An absolutely phenomenal read."—Cristina Alger

"When it comes to the law and the fight to save democracy, Stacey Abrams knows what she's talking about. While Justice Sleeps also proves that she knows how to craft a compelling and suspenseful mystery."—Mark Billingham

"[Abrams] displays her considerable talent for fiction in this gripping legal thriller. Shadowy figures....earth-shattering consequences....[a] deadly knot of deception....fiendishly intricate clues leading to a horrifying secret that implicates powerful and dangerous people. The buzz is loud and wholly deserved for this shrewd and exciting legal thriller by prominent voter-rights activist and best-selling Abrams."—Booklist (starred review)

"Abrams keeps the plot churning, concentrating on the myriad power plays that go on behind the scenes as she brings in greed, a controversial merger between a biotech and a genetics firm, and self-centered politicians."—The South Florida Sun Sentinel

From the Publisher

01/01/2021

In When Justice Sleeps, Abrams takes a break from her considerable political responsibilities to craft a legal thriller featuring Avery Keene, who clerks for Supreme Court Justice Wynn and takes over the background investigation of a key case when he falls into a coma. In Hairpin Bridge, Adams's No Exit follow-up, Lena Nguyen doesn't believe that estranged twin sister Cambry committed suicide; otherwise, she likely wouldn't have called 911 16 times before her death (100,000-copy first printing). In Hummel's Lesson in Red, follow-up to the Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine pick Still Lives, Maggie Richter faces another artworld mystery. In Edgar-nominated, New York Times best-selling author McCreight's Friends Like These, a bachelor party in the Catskills is a cover for a staged intervention to help one of the guests, but someone ends up dead (75,000-copy first printing). Abducted from her found-religion parents' isolated Arkansas homestead and returned unharmed yet still treated as damaged, teenage Sarabeth gladly makes her exit, but in International Thriller Writer Award winner McHugh's What's Done in Darkness, she gets called back five years later to help with a copycat crime. Following Mangin's nationally best-selling Tangerine, Palace of the Drowned stars flailing British novelist Frankie Croy, who is staying in a friend's vacant Venice palazzo in 1966 while struggling to regain her early writing promise and doesn't quite trust a fan who comes her way (200,000-copy first printing). Having had a huge international best seller with The Silent Patient, Michaelides aims for another winner in his Untitled new work (one-million-copy first printing). Following the New York Times best-selling, Reese Witherspoon-optioned Something in the Water, Steadman returns with The Disappearing Act, about a British actress who realizes that she's the only witness to the disappearance of a woman she auditioned with during Hollywood's harried pilot season.

Library Journal

Narrator Adenrele Ojo marshals listeners through this complicated legal-political-medical thriller. Listeners may wonder how Stacey Abrams found the time to write a book. Abrams provides the answer in the introduction. In a departure from her romance novels, Abrams provides listeners with an engaging, fast-paced plot involving the Supreme Court, weaponized genetics, and a corrupt president. At the center is brilliant Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene, whom Ojo portrays with just the right amount of emotion. Ojo also masterfully presents the male characters, including Justice Howard Wynn, the president, and agents from Homeland Security and the FBI. Ojo’s clear vocal differentiation will help listeners follow the points of view of the many characters who behave badly for complex reasons. A smart and intense listen. E.Q. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MAY 2021 - AudioFile

Narrator Adenrele Ojo marshals listeners through this complicated legal-political-medical thriller. Listeners may wonder how Stacey Abrams found the time to write a book. Abrams provides the answer in the introduction. In a departure from her romance novels, Abrams provides listeners with an engaging, fast-paced plot involving the Supreme Court, weaponized genetics, and a corrupt president. At the center is brilliant Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene, whom Ojo portrays with just the right amount of emotion. Ojo also masterfully presents the male characters, including Justice Howard Wynn, the president, and agents from Homeland Security and the FBI. Ojo’s clear vocal differentiation will help listeners follow the points of view of the many characters who behave badly for complex reasons. A smart and intense listen. E.Q. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MAY 2021 - AudioFile

2021-01-27
A progressive superstar pens her first political thriller.

Anyone who follows the news knows Abrams as a politician and voting rights activist. She's less well known as a novelist. Using the pseudonym Selena Montgomery, Abrams has published several works of romantic suspense. Her new novel begins when Supreme Court Justice Howard Wynn falls into a coma. His clerk Avery Keene is shocked to discover that her boss has made her his legal guardian and granted her power of attorney. The fate of one of the most powerful men in the world is in her hands—and her life is in danger. Abrams gives us nefarious doings in the world of biotech, a president with autocratic tendencies and questionable ethics, and a young woman struggling to unravel a conspiracy while staying one step ahead of the people who want her out of the way. Unfortunately, the author doesn't weave these intriguing elements into an enjoyable whole. Abrams makes some odd word choices, such as this: “The intricate knot she had twisted into her hair that morning bobbed cunningly as she neared her office.” The adverb cunningly is mystifying, and Abrams uses it in a similar way later on. There are disorienting shifts in point of view. And Abrams lavishes a great deal of attention on details that simply don’t matter, which makes the pace painfully slow. This is a fatal flaw in a suspense novel, but it may not be the most frustrating aspect of this book. For a protagonist who has gotten where she is by being smart, Avery makes some stunningly poor decisions. For example, the fact that she has a photographic memory is an important plot point and is clearly a factor in Justice Wynn’s decision to enlist her help. When she finds a piece of paper upon which is printed a long string of characters and the words "BURN UPON REVIEW," Avery memorizes the lines of numbers and letters—and then, even though she knows she’s being surveilled, she snaps a shot of the paper with her phone, thereby making the whole business of setting it on fire quite pointless.

More of a curiosity for political junkies than a satisfying story of international intrigue.

Kirkus Reviews