Trial confirms Richard North Patterson’s place as “our most important author of popular fiction.”
In a propulsive narrative that culminates in a nationally televised murder case, Trial explores America’s most incendiary flashpoints of race.
A Black eighteen-year-old voting rights worker, Malcolm Hill, is stopped by a white sheriff’s deputy on a dark country road in rural Georgia. His single mother, Allie, America’s leading voting rights advocate, restlessly awaits his return before police inform her that Malcolm has been arrested for murder. In Washington D.C., the rising, young, white congressman Chase Brevard of Massachusetts is watching the morning news with his girlfriend, only to find his life transformed in a single moment by the appearance of Malcolm’s photograph. Suddenly all three are enveloped in a media firestorm that threatens their lives—especially Malcolm’s.
Richard North Patterson is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two prior novels, including the number one New York Times bestseller, Protect and Defend, as well as a nonfiction narrative of the 2016 presidential campaign. Formerly a trial lawyer, Patterson’s numerous awards include the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Critics have called him “one of the best in the business” and “our most important popular novelist.”
Between 2015 and 2021, Patterson was a regular columnist for national publications, noted for his widely read commentaries on American politics. Concerning his novel, Balance of Power, President Bill Clinton said, “Richard North Patterson has a keen eye for how Washington really works,” while Senator Edward Kennedy called it “a great read by a masterful writer.” Trial is his first novel in nine years.
Patterson lives on Martha’s Vineyard and in Jacksonville, Florida with his wife, Dr. Nancy Clair.
