Reviewed by Patti Loveday
RACE TO JUDGEMENT by Frederic Block is a fast-paced legal thriller and powerful urban drama that is full of suspense and insider gossip about Brooklyn lawyers, judges, and politicians.
In this tightly woven thriller, you will find a number of memorable characters with scandalous backstories and past lives that would make a politician blush. The characters are well developed and planned out to mesh with the overall theme of this novel making the ending a complete surprise that you will not see coming.
Set in Brooklyn with vividly described urban landscapes, historical landmarks, and a knowledge of the inner workings of the justice system. The setting is the perfect backdrop for this legal thriller and adds that extra element that helps to create the overall tone for this story.
RACE TO JUDGEMENT is a story that is easy to follow and keeps you hooked till the very end. This story is loosely based on events, cases, and people around Brooklyn. Judge Block takes you on a wild ride through some of the most notorious cases from Brooklyn over the time span of twenty years. Written from the point of view of a judge gives you a real first hand look at the justice system and a behind the scenes look at what really happens behind closed doors. A true insiders look at the people within these cases that are both innocent and guilty.
RACE TO JUDGEMENT is full of tension, social unrest, and injustice. A book that is a real eye opener and will leave you with many questions about today's justice system and current events.
RACE TO JUDGEMENT reads more like a tell all novel instead of a crime drama making you wonder who each character could be or is. Overall, an intriguing read that is a real eye opener.
SUMMARY
Fast paced legal thriller and powerful urban drama from Frederic Block, the Brooklyn based federal judge who sentenced Peter Gotti of the Gambino crime family. Based partly on fact and seething racial tensions and political corruption, it doesn't get any more "New York" than Race to Judgment!
Race to Judgment is a "reality-fiction" debut novel loosely based on a number of high-profile cases handled by its author, a federal trial court judge, over his 23 years on the federal bench in Brooklyn-such as the Crown Heights riots and the Peter Gotti trial. It tracks the rise of the fictional African-American civil rights protagonist Ken Williams (in real life, the recently deceased Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson) from his days as an Assistant United States Attorney through his meteoric rise to unseat the long-term, corrupt Brooklyn DA because of a spate of phony convictions against black defendants, including another one of the judge's real cases (JoJo Jones in the book) for the murder of a Hasidic rabbi. Williams' dramatic courtroom antics (with the aid of his colorful private eye) results in JoJo's exoneration after 16 years behind bars. In addition, Williams defends a young black guidance counselor accused of killing the rabbi's son many years ago, and champions the cause of a young Hasidic woman raped by her father. As a hobby, Williams plays jazz piano and writes country songs written by the author-which are reproduced in the book and can be heard on e-books and the Internet.