When the corpse of a seven-month-old infant is discovered in the ashes of a black parishioners' torched church, small-town Mississippi lawyer Vernon King decides to defend the man accused of the crime. This debut thriller attempts to explore racial tensions, interracial love and Internet conspiracies, but Kean's reach exceeds his grasp. After the FBI arrests Vernon's neighbor, dairy farmer Bill Walls, for arson, King takes the case, although he's had little trial experience. He's soon horrified by the FBI agents' overt dislike of Southerners, and with the help of a former high school classmate and federal agent, he sets out to uncover the truth. Kean, an attorney who has worked as a government investigator, provides thorough descriptions of the trial proceedings and agency investigations, but he is unable to fashion his material into a suspenseful narrative. Vernon learns that Bill's son and a young black woman are the parents of the murdered infant, but these and other revelations are disclosed without any tangible tension. The novel's climax is paradoxical as well: although Vernon manages to do right by Bill, the identity of the arsonist provides further grief, a radical black group makes Bill the real victim and more bodies pile up. Kean's message is a pessimistic one: readers looking for reassurance about, or even a hard examination of, race relations will find that bigotry still burns bright in the Southland. 5000 first printing; author tour.
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