Briley Lester is worried about her first capital trial—the prosecution has an airtight case and her client has no alibi. She plans on a mitigating defense—one that might get her client’s sentence reduced from first-degree murder to manslaughter—until she stumbles onto evidence that could prove her client’s innocence. In her struggle to achieve true justice, Briley must venture outside her self-protective boundaries to defeat an experienced prosecutor and the forces that are determined to destroy her client at any cost.
Someone enters your room and is unseen. You are asleep in your bed. The next morning you awaken and do not want to disturb your husband who appears to be asleep. A man so meticulous, so rigid in his schedule and his life that he would never oversleep and deviate from his daily routine. But, when he fails to awaken, you enter your bedroom and find that his body has turned blue and you call 911 only to learn he is dead. However, you are not the one who killed him or are you?
This brings me to my review of Let Darkness Come by Angela Hunt. As the story unfolds Jeffrey Tomassi is murdered in cold blood in his own bed. Someone administered an overdose of insulin in his stomach and left him to die. Unknowingly to her, while fast asleep his wife Erin, having taken sleep pills before bed, hears nothing and sees nothing. However, the police upon investigation believe otherwise and she is arrested for his murder.
Antonio Tomassi, the father of the deceased man wants his son’s murderer prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Hiring the best law firm and able to get the autopsy results in record time, he instructs his law firm to assign a novice to the case since he wants his daughter-in-law punished and represented by the least experienced lawyer in the firm. Enter Briley Lester who has been assigned the case. Up until now she had been assigned cases of lesser importance and certainly not a major murder case. However, her firm will not assign any assistants, paralegals or allocate funds for investigators or anyone else. The father of the murder victim in calling the shots with the law firm and does not want an acquittal. Added to all of this her client appears delusional and has created an imaginary friend who she claims is the murderer. The more Briley learns about Erin the more she realizes that something is wrong, but she does not believe that she killed her husband. However, she does believe that Erin might be a sleepwalker and many of her actions were done without her knowledge. She could possibly be lying and pretending to have an imaginary friend or she really has more than one personality. Erin seems to create stumbling blocks and roadblocks to prevent Briley from deciding on a defense and using the information from the psychiatrist’s report to defend her. As the trial begins we see a determined Briley and a just as determined prosecuting attorney battle it out to make their cases with the jury. Being attacked in jail, Erin endures more than she should and so does Briley when threatened while leaving the courtroom.
As the trial progresses you the reader will have to determine her guilt or innocence. What makes this book stand out is the author’s way of presenting the plot. When the characters are not interacting and speaking to each other, the author uses a unique style of narrative to take the reader through the legal process of how the law works in a murder trial and what lawyers need to do to prepare a proper defense. As Briley learns more about Erin and her life before meeting her she discovers medical evidence concerning her client that will not only break open the case and change the original direction, but will astound the reader as well. How valid is DNA testing? You will have to read this book to find out just what the author relates. A client who fears for her life and a family who will stop at nothing to see that she pays with her life. What happens will surprise the reader. The twists and turns and the surprise ending will give the reader hope that there are lawyers that will not accept failure as an option. There are people that even though they are set up to lose, will give it everything no matter what. With a well-crafted plot and suspense until the very end, the author leaves us wanting more. Hopefully she will bring Briley back for a sequel to this great novel.
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