Supreme suspense – Winnipeg Free Press

Like Wonder Woman’s smarter, tougher sister, U.S. Supreme Court law clerk Avery Keene is back to save — whoa, golly, not just American democracy this time, but to save the world.

She’s taking on not only a loathsomely evil president trying to scheme and intimidate and blackmail his way back into the Oval Office after Keene got him impeached, but also a sort of Bond villain with the power, resources and nifty gadgets of which Dr. No or Goldfinger could only have dreamt.

The catch is that neither Keene nor anyone else knows the aforementioned Bond villain exists, let alone what the plot could possibly be once revealed.

And evil this plot is, real conquer-the-world stuff, because who notices an unexplained murder here, a bizarre suicide there, a judge making a totally off-the-wall ruling — nothing linked, nothing hinting at the scope of such evil.

Fortunately, Keene can see patterns where no one else can, along with having a photographic memory. Think maybe she’ll spot a pattern?

We met Keene two years ago in While Justice Sleeps, like Rogue Justice a wild political thriller — the usual cliché is roller-coaster ride — that leaves the reader no time for breath, a total hoot within the halls of power of Washington, D.C., and out in the gun-toting real world in places we’re not going to tell you about and which you’re seriously unlikely to ever visit.

And like While Justice Sleeps, Rogue Justice wouldn’t have had much chance with a major publishing house had it not been written by Stacey Abrams, one of the most brilliant politicians in the U.S.

What was most surprising was that While Justice Sleeps was not the insider’s cerebral page-turner — you expected The Manchurian Candidate or Seven Days in May, but you got Jack Bauer or Jack Ryan.

In a sane world, Abrams would be the Democratic governor of Georgia, awaiting higher office. As it was, her efforts to get out Black and other minority voters, despite racist barriers entrenched across Georgia for centuries, won the state for Joe Biden and won two Senate seats that ensured four more years of democracy in the States.

Sure, Abrams depicts the sleaziness in both parties — everyone has secrets, everyone has something on someone else, deals get made that in no way resemble public principles, and every politician and public servant is angling for an edge on everyone else. Personal ambition — that’s what it’s all about.

Rogue Justice is also about race. Like Abrams, Keene is Black, and in 2023 only in a parallel universe do so many Black women wield so much power, though white men still rule.

Keene is such an integral player because the irascible Supreme Court justice for whom she clerks decided to give her his power-of-attorney before falling into an ongoing coma. Just roll with it.