cover image Absolution

Absolution

Miriam Herin, . . Novello Festival, $22.95 (318pp) ISBN 978-0-9760963-9-9

This impressive Novello Literary Award–winning debut skillfully combines a contemporary courtroom thriller with a subtle look back at the competing passions and pressures of the Vietnam War era. Maggie Delaney's world has been shattered by her husband Richard's murder after he intervened to protect a drugstore clerk from a gunman, teenage Vietnamese immigrant Anh Dung Nguyen. The local DA is convinced that his case against Nguyen is a “slam dunk,” but that assessment proves off-base when Everett Quincy, a high-profile attorney from New York, takes the case. Quincy suggests that Delaney's death is connected with his experiences in Vietnam, which may have led him to undue violence against Nguyen. This twist reawakens Maggie's antiwar past, as well as her long-ago personal relationship with Quincy. The flashbacks to the war are convincing, and despite some awkward plot elements, Herin delves deep into questions of guilt and forgiveness while demonstrating a gift for the nuances of personal interactions. (Oct.)