Between Black and White, Robert Bailey

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review*

Between Black and White, Robert Bailey
Author:  Robert Bailey
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Pages: 379
Format: DRC
ISBN-10: 1503953076
ISBN-13: 9781503953079
Series: McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #2
Publisher: eBook | Paperback
Between Black and White

4 stars

In 1966 in Pulaski, Tennessee, Bocephus Haynes watched in horror as his father was brutally murdered by ten local members of the Ku Klux Klan. As an African American lawyer practicing in the birthplace of the Klan years later, Bo has spent his life pursuing justice in his father’s name. But when Andy Walton, the man believed to have led the lynch mob forty-five years earlier, ends up murdered in the same spot as Bo’s father, Bo becomes the prime suspect.
Retired law professor Tom McMurtrie, Bo’s former teacher and friend, is a year removed from returning to the courtroom. Now McMurtrie and his headstrong partner, Rick Drake, must defend Bo on charges of capital murder while hunting for Andy Walton’s true killer. In a courtroom clash that will put their reputations and lives at stake, can McMurtrie and Drake release Bo from a lifetime of despair? Or will justice remain hidden somewhere between black and white?

This is the second book in the McMurtrie and Drake series. I read the first book, The Professor, last year after having it on my shelves for a while and love it. Well written full of excitement. When I was asked if I would like to read the second book I did not have to think for long and it was for sure not staying on my shelves for months.
Between Black and White picks up Bocephus Haynes. We met him in the first book as a good friend of the Professor. He is now facing a murder charge and asks Tom McMurtrie to defend him. Bo his father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan when Bo was five but it was ruled a suicide. Bo witnessed the murder and knew at least one of the involved people. Trying to get justice for his fathers dead was the reason Bo went to law school. He never made a secret that he wanted this man to be punished for killing his father. But when Andy shows up dead the trouble for Bo start. It is clear Bo is a good person. Everything in his demeanour points to him being an honest man despite his feelings and the emotional trouble he is having at the moment. So the excitement in the story is coming from the hope that Tom and Rick Drake will manage to find evidence to set him free in time. This whole search is extra interesting as Tom, Bo and Rick still have a ghost from the past chasing them wanting them dead. The whole story is well written but not a puzzle along story. A lot of clues are found outside the story scope and brought in. This is not annoying though as there is so much going on I still felt I could consider possible scenarios and see if they would be the one that really happened.
The book is building on things that happened in the first book. Though I do think you could read this as a stand alone as things are explained I feel you would miss out on some of the motivation behind Rick and Tom's behaviour.
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