coolreads# The Last Justice @definitelybooks

The Last Justice
Author: Alex Finlay
Publisher: Head of Zeus
ISBN: 9781800246386

Chaos erupts in the US Supreme Court when an assassin guns down six justices as they are hearing a case, sending the nation's highest court into turmoil and deep crisis. Questions soon arise on how the assassin managed to escape the security detection and also smuggle in the gun for the shooting. The FBI begins to look at the possibility of an insider connection. A list of suspects is drawn up, and it includes the wife of the late Chief Justice Kincaid, who was himself mistakenly shot and killed by the Supreme Court police officer in the crossfire. Apparently, Kincaid was firing back at the shooter and he was the only witness to have seen the shooter’s face during the tragedy of Black Wednesday before the assassin made the escape from the courtroom.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Jefferson McKenna, the government's top lawyer in the Supreme Court, who is also shot during the crossfire and survives, is appointed to the multiagency commission investigating the murders. As Congress meets to draw the battle lines over who will replace the slain justices, the commission follows the clues available, each one inevitably points to an unlikely suspect - McKenna himself.

In a desperate bid to prove his innocence, McKenna, on the run with his deputy, Kate Porter, must track down a disgraced law clerk with ties to hidden Saudi assets. But their search leads to unexpected alliances, unearthing dark secrets and corruption at the highest levels - and the people with clues to the riddle keep turning up dead. McKenna soon realises and discovers just how much danger he's in as he digs deeper into the case, and also how far his enemy will go to conceal the truth.

From the marble halls of the high court to the inner corridors of the White House’s West Wing, from the DC housing projects to the desolate back roads of a New York Indian reservation, McKenna and Porter are on a collision course with a shadowy enemy who will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried. Will the duo be able to survive this dark conspiracy and discover the true identity of the killer?

From its explosive first page to its haunting conclusion, The Last Justice explores the politics of law, the bounds of friendship and love, and the frightening price of unbridled ambition. An interesting and insightful read.