A Jury of Her Peers

April 1, 1996
This fast-moving legal thriller, an accomplished first novel, follows New York City Legal Aid lawyer Sybylla Muldoon as she prepares to defend a once-gentle homeless man named Trent who has been arrested for the brutal stabbing of an Upper East Side schoolgirl. Initially, Trent manifests classic signs of schizophrenia, but he soon becomes coherent and, while intimating a tale of abduction, refuses to speak more fully until his trial. As Koreliltz traces Sybylla's approach to this high-profile case, she reveals the day-to-day workings of modern justice as played out in New York City's crowded courtrooms at 100 Centre Street. Utterly commited to her clients, Sybylla, a postfeminist Nancy Drew, exhibits a thinking woman's appeal that is heightened by both her difficult relationship with her father, a noted right-leaning jurist who may soon become a Supreme Court nominee, and a developing romantic interest. Although the plot, featuring murder, conspiracy, politics and the perversion of justice, moves into Robin Cook territory for a time, Korelitz's convincing characterization, vigorous prose and rapid-fire pacing deliver thoughtful entertainment along with the promised thrills.

March 1, 1996
Resourceful public defender Sybylla Muldoon exposes an insidious plot involving kidnapping, radical drug experimentation, and jury tampering that extends from a grubby New York courtroom to the hallowed halls of the U.S. Supreme Court. In order to exonerate her client, a homeless man accused of an utterly heinous and seemingly random assault on a young child, Sybylla begins investigating his dubious claim that he was abducted and held against his will in a strange hospital. When she discovers that the baffling implant removed from his upper arm is actually a time-release device loaded with LSD, Sybylla prepares to use this explosive information in her defense argument. Before she is able to present this evidence in court, her client conveniently dies, and she realizes her own life is in grave jeopardy. Fleeing to Washington, D.C., Sybylla uncovers evidence linking her own father, a popular Supreme Court nominee, to the bizarre conspiracy. A suspenseful and tautly rendered legal drama. ((Reviewed March 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)