With Prejudice

Gabriel Soto, the defendant in Peguero’s unimpressive debut, is on trial for abducting, raping, and killing Melina Mora, despite Mora’s body never having been found. The prosecution, led by Sandy Grunwald, an irritating type A lawyer, hinges its case on forensic evidence, principally strands of Mora’s hair found in Soto’s home on a farm in Homestead, Fla. Shortly before trial, a surprise discovery on the defendant’s hard drive—a trove of exclusively homosexual porn videos—gives Soto’s attorney new hope for acquittal by arguing that a man who had no sexual interest in women must be innocent, and forces Grunwald to regroup. Her manic trial prep, which includes asking the main police investigator to reenact Grunwald’s theory of the crime by pinning her down with his body on a table in Soto’s home, is too over-the-top to make her credible. Unrealistic courtroom scenes, as when Grunwald attempts to rehabilitate a witness on redirect with unobjected-to leading questions, don’t help, nor does awkward prose (“Like refracting mirrors set up to face one another, their gorgeousness multiplied exponentially”). Legal thriller fans can safely take a pass. Agent: Michael Nardullo, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (May)