Denver defense attorney Jackie Flowers doesn't want to take the case. Convicted child killers are not her favorite clients.
Thirty years ago, Rachel Boyd was just a child herself when she was found guilty of killing her little playmate, Freddie Gant. After three decades in reform school and adult prison, Rachel is finally free. Free to find a new life. Free to kill again?
Has she, in fact, already killed another child? Shortly after settling in at the home of her brother, wealthy banker Chris Boyd, Rachel may have succumbed to temptation. Could it be just a coincidence that the gardener's child, Benjamin Sparks, is found dead in circumstances somewhat similar to the Freddie Gant murder?
Against her better instincts, Jackie accepts Rachel's case. Everyone deserves a good defense. Jackie wants desperately to embrace her client's innocence and believe what Rachel tells her. Can she trust her enough to invite her into her home to stay while she prepares for trial?
And what about Lily, the child next door whom Jackie loves as her own? Just kicked out of boarding school, she's facing a rocky adolescence. Rachel's influence on her may be dangerous in more ways than one.
As Jackie fights to prove Rachel's innocence, she must struggle with challenges both inside and outside the courtroom: her dyslexia, which makes it tough to be a lawyer, especially when the other side throws unexpected documents in her face; her conflicted relationship with ex-lover Dennis Ross, who's now an affluent civil litigator; her paralyzing fear of heights. Will her fear cause her to fail at the most crucial moment?
With its riveting insights into the legal process and its devastating observations on good and evil and the way the past can haunt the present, Seeds of Doubt confirms the literary power of one of our brightest new crime-writing talents.