This classical legal thriller by N. Lombardi Jr. takes place between New Jersey and New York. Justice Gone shows from the start the huge flaws of the American legal system, based on politics, which most of the times doesn’t care about justice. And as we see from the first meeting of the city council after the opening episode of Jay’s beating and death by police enforcement, most members of the council have only one goal. To hush down everything before it explodes in their faces and they have to pay the consequences. Not once they seem to be interested in finding out the truth. They hide an important piece of evidence to the jury and choose the best way to save their position. And even after the murder of the three police officers, during the trial, we are shown by the behaviour of the jury that having common people deciding on the life of an individual leads to absurd results when there is not a piece of single evidence against the defendant.
Mr Lombardi Jr’s excellent prose leads the leader through a breathtaking thriller and even though there are little clues all the way about who’s the killer, until the end I didn’t know. My favourite character is Nathaniel Bodine, the defendant’s lawyer. He’s not the main character. The way he explains how the trial works clearly shows the State is not looking after the truth and the jury, being sequestered only wants to end the trial as soon as possible. It’s understandable: they can’t go home, they can’t read the newspapers, they can’t use the internet. They can’t use their phones. It’s like they’re in prison too. And Bodine says it all in a few words: it is all about blame.
I recommend Justice Gone to all those who like a nice legal thriller.
Reviewed for Readers' Favorite
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