A Criminal Appeal

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Nora Lumsey, a lawyer serving as law clerk to an Indianapolis appeals court judge, is a "big-boned" woman who declares: "Big-boned women stick their noses where they shouldn't, are curious about everything, aren't afraid to get dirty, like to get dirty. We try too hard, hold too tight, talk too loud." In this prickly and surprising debut, Nora finds herself pursuing justice rather than the law and jeopardizing not only her nascent legal career but also her life. A young, deaf, black boy, Dexter Hinton, has been convicted of shooting and killing an elderly white woman during an attempted purse snatching. Although he was only 10 at the time of the crime, the boy's (tainted) confession has led to trial as an adult, conviction and a long sentence. Against her better judgment, Nora is drawn into the case and gets personally involved with a number of people with whom she shouldn't even associate: the boy's grandfather, Carl, a near neighbor; Owedia Braxton, a teacher of deaf students; and Dexter himself. First reluctantly, then stubbornly, Nora fights her judge, politicians and white and black gangs because she's convinced of Dexter's innocence. Acute characterizations of a rich diversity of characters--black and white, rural and urban--mark Schanker as an author to watch, as does a well-concealed shock ending that rings elegantly true. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Narrator Nora Lumsey, a recent law school graduate, works as a law clerk for a judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals. "Big-boned," naive, and idealistic, she becomes personally involved in the appealed case of a ten-year-old deaf black boy wrongfully convicted of murder. After the court upholds the conviction, Nora and the child's former teacher risk life and limb to find the real killer. First novelist Schanker wields a mighty pen, providing strong focus, deliberate but sensitive prose, dramatic action, and a powerful blend of race, religion, politics, and legal procedure. For all collections.

Kirkus Reviews

Ten-year-old Dexter Hinton's conviction in the drive-by shooting of elderly robbery target Cora Rollison was routine once the judge admitted the confession that Dexterþd recanted after talking to his grandfather and guardian Carl Hinton. And now it looks as if the appeal Carl has painfully cobbled together will be denied with equal dispatch. Judge Carter Albertson, of the Indiana Court of Appeals, tells his first-year clerk Nora Lumsey that the verdict is to be affirmed without ado. But Nora, who overlooks no chance to reiterate that she's a big-boned woman used to locking horns with authority figures, looks deep enough into the record to notice that Carl Hinton is a neighbor of hers. Unwisely and incredibly, she drops by his house to introduce herself (though concealing her job), listen to his hard-luck story about his poor deaf grandson, and, eventually, come out fighting for Dex's release despite the threat of disbarment if either side she's working for ever finds out about the other. Beset on every front by inner-city gangstas who want the buck to stop with Dex and by big-city politicos who don't want a freed Dex to turn into another Willie Horton, Nora ends up risking more than she'd ever imagined when she said hello to Carl Hinton. Nora's harsh, uncompromising voice, something new and welcome in the genre, makes the extravagantly improbable premise of her first case worth the stretchþthough it's a relief to find her headed to more suitable employment at the fade-out.