The two main characters are helpless victims throughout the story. It was too depressing. I wanted it to be over.

STORY BRIEF:
Ivory Nation is a white supremacy group, headed by Bobby, a religious fanatic who believes God directs him. Members of this group threaten, torture and kill nonwhite people and anyone who helps them. Kenny is a member of Ivory Nation. He is being tried for the murder of Cortes, an illegal immigrant, who had sex with a white woman he was dating. Hannah is the criminal court judge overseeing the trial. Her home and car have been damaged. Her cat has been killed. There is no proof of who did it. Hannah’s good friend Brian is a pediatrician. He provides free medical services to low income families. Within the past year, several Hispanic babies have died shortly after receiving vaccinations from Brian. Evidence against him has been planted. He is being framed.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
Members of Ivory Nation are everywhere including police, politicians, and courtroom employees. They get whatever they want through their connections and by threatening people. They can get anyone to do anything by threatening their children. No one can succeed against them. It’s a hopeless, helpless view of the world. This theme carries throughout the book. I was depressed throughout the book. Bad things are happening to good people, and they can do nothing about it. Finally, there is a decent ending but it was because one of the bad guys (I will call him BG) did something. BG did something that proved Brian was wrongly framed, but BG’s motive was not to help Brian. BG’s motive was to hurt something else. It was mere luck for Brian that BG decided to do this. Otherwise Brian would have gone to jail for life. I prefer stories where the hero or heroine has some skills, abilities or growth to be able to overcome adversity. In this book, the good guys were losers. There was no way they could win without the convenience of luck. The only positive was that Hannah kept her integrity and performed her judicial duties honestly, even though she was afraid.

CAUTION SPOILER:
An example of the Ivory Nation ability follows. Kenny is guilty and is found guilty by the jury. Previous threats to the judge had not helped. Therefore, after the verdict, the Ivory Nation leader Bobby confesses that he personally committed the crime. He gets a police officer to testify that the officer saw Bobby do it. Bobby says that the ring that hit the victim was his. So, Kenny is set free. Then a courtroom employee steals the ring out of evidence so it can’t be used. The police officer is killed and can’t testify. Bobby walks free along with Kenny. The judge had done what was right but was helpless.

DATA:
Story length: 370 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 5. Total number of sex scene pages: 8. Setting: current day Arizona. Copyright: 2008. Genre: mystery suspense with a little romance.