The Sentence by Christina Dalcher

The Sentence by Christina Dalcher
UK Publication: August 2023
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★★]

This ARC was provided by HQ (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

One Word Review Wow – Two word review Just Wow

Synopsis from Netgalley: The one decision you can’t take back

Prosecutor, Justine Boucher has only asked for the death penalty once, in a brutal murder case.

In doing so, she put her own life on the line. Because, if the convicted are later found innocent, the lawyer who requested the execution will be sentenced to death.

Justine had no doubt that the man she sent to the chair was guilty.

Until now.

Presented with evidence that could prove his innocence, Justine must find out the truth before anyone else does.

Her life depends on it.

My Thoughts: Christina Dalcher is a go to author for me and this book cements that fact. Dalcher takes on the American legal system particularly the death sentence in this Dystopian thriller.

The Netgalley synopsis provides the moral dilemma that this book sets out to tackle and the reader is swept along as we follow Justine from idealistic advocate against the death penalty to a Prosecutor who sends a man to his death.

The book explores the many grey areas between guilt and innocence in law, the grey areas that the legal system is not set up to deal with.  It also explores the impact of personalities on a legal case and the fact that not all law enforcement from the police to the prosecutor see things in the same way and the same cases presented to different personalities can have different outcomes, highlighting that the law is not impartial as we would like to imagine.

Some of the evidence gathering requires the reader to suspend disbelief and to go with the flow. We all know miscarriages of justice can and do occur so why should the fictional future world be any different?

I can see this being a great book club read because there is so much here that needs to be discussed and debated.

Who would like this? Read this book for what it is a fictional thriller that looks at the moral question of sentencing a person to death, once that sentence is carried out regardless of future evidence it cannot be taken back. Something everyone calling for the legal death of another person for whatever reason should bear in mind.

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