Amazon.com Review
Ellis Cose has written so many books and magazine articles on issues of race, work, and gender that it should come as no surprise to find that his first fictional outing is a legal thriller about a killing caused by affirmative action. What is surprising is the amount of suspense Cose can conjure up by being scrupulously fair to all sides of a complex and explosive issue. When John Wisocki, a white computer-training expert, shoots the Hispanic coworker who got his job after a corporate takeover, his first move is to hire Felicia Fontaine--an African American defense attorney whose response to the constant cry of "We never seem to get our due" (from what she calls "a whole motley tribe of the so-called disadvantaged who were unsure of how to get ahead in life") is "We get what we know how to demand." Does Felicia really believe Wisocki's story that he was planning to shoot himself when the coworker got in his way? Or, as her prosecutorial opponent and ex-lover Mario Santiago puts it, is it a case of "You're damned good at playing the game, but you don't particularly care about the people involved. Sometimes I wonder whether you care about right and wrong." Before the case is over (and even after), Felicia and most readers of Cose's smart, heartfelt novel will find lots of their preconceived notions taken out for a brisk airing. --Dick Adler