BONES OF BLACK SAINTS

Two Polish American lawyers defend a Black Latinx activist in this sequel.

In this legal thriller, Charns brings back Star Gwiazda and her law partner, Zenko Luczek, now court-appointed attorneys defending Marcos Salazar Jones against charges of shooting a Durham, North Carolina, police officer. Zenko is certain that the officer shot himself and framed Marcos, a local Black Lives Matter activist. But the lawyer has his doubts about whether the jury will agree, or if the talented but unpredictable Star’s courtroom theatrics will be too much. The tension remains high from jury selection to verdict, with the toppling of a local Confederate statue and vandalism and violence against Star and Zenko making life outside the courtroom just as complicated. The story’s subplots touch on a wide range of topics, from hockey and the Polish American experience—Zenko’s narration often turns to his childhood in Detroit’s Polish community—to the law partners’ histories of mental illness, while keeping a focus on the events taking place inside the courtroom. The narration is cynical and biting (the police officer is “a Robocop Mr. Clean without the earring”; Zenko attributes his success to “Al-Anon, hockey and staying out of bad relationships, not necessarily in that order”) as well as entertaining, keeping the pages turning despite the almost too-detailed courtroom play-by-plays. While the book spends more time on the minutiae of legal practice, precedent, and witness questioning than most in the genre, it does so in a way that feels informative and engaging rather than tedious. The novel does have its limitations. Some typos are distracting (“The smell of lemon-scented bleach, sweat, and sewage envelope us”), and a plot twist on the work’s penultimate page turns the tale’s emotional resolution on its head, cutting into the sense of vindication that dominates to that point. But on the whole, the thriller is a satisfying read, telling a solid story while exploring questions of faith, Whiteness, and relationships and incorporating current events and present-day realities into the framework of a classic fight-the-system tale.

A compelling courtroom drama that overcomes its limitations.