Scorched Earth
Less a mystery than a finely crafted, poetic meditation on justice,  race, love, and hate in a small Virginia town, Robbins's intense though  occasionally overwrought novel compounds one tragedy--the birth and death of an  infant--with another. In the smoking ruins of a church whose deacons demanded  that Clare and Elijah Waddell's baby be disinterred and reburied elsewhere  because of her mixed-race parentage, the discovery of the charred body of the  teenage daughter of the powerful local sheriff turns a case of arson into one of  murder, and possibly rape as well. When Roanoke lawyer Nat Deeds is assigned to  defend Elijah, he knows he faces a lawyer's worst nightmare: a truly innocent  man.Returning to the home town he left after learning of his wife's infidelity, Nat  encounters a community that seems turned against him, except for his closest  boyhood friend, now the charismatic pastor of destroyed Victory Baptist church.  Pastor Tom Derby is a man with a secret, a man whose efforts to conquer his own  demons fuel the flames of the town's hidden rage and hatred. These forces drive  this atmospheric and involving read to its denouement.Scorched Earthis  a novel that will appeal to readers who ordinarily eschew the mystery genre as  well as to fans of legal thrillers--Scott Turow's admirers would do well to try  it while they wait for his next one.--Jane Adams--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.