Programs

2013 Harper Lee Prize Finalists: Help Choose the Winning Book!

The three finalists have been announced by the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal, co-sponsors of the Harper Lee Prize. They are: David Ellis for The Wrong Man; Paul Goldstein author of Havana Requiem and William Landay for Defending Jacob. You can help choose the 2013 winner by voting on the ABAJournal.com . The winner will be announced July 16. The prize will be awarded September 19, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the Library of Congress National Book Festival.

Learn more about each book below, and then vote for your favorite!

Descriptions are from the authors’ official websites:

The Wrong Man by David Ellis

When Jason Kolarich accepts the case of a homeless Iraq war veteran accused of murdering a young paralegal, his course seems clear:  to mount an insanity defense for a man suffering so badly from post-traumatic stress disorder that he has no real memory of the crime.  But as Kolarich digs deeper, he realizes that, unlikely as it seems, his client is probably innocent—and the murder was no random crime, but a targeted hit.  As Jason Kolarich races to find the truth in time to save his client, he’ll find himself embroiled in a mystery involving the mob, a mysterious assassin, and a conspiracy of wealthy, international terrorists with explosive plans for his city.

Havana Requiem by Paul Goldstein

Fueled by alcohol and legal brilliance, Michael Seeley once oversaw his law firm’s most successful litigation. Until it all fell apart. Recklessness and overreach cost him his wife, his job, and likely the life of his last client, a Chinese dissident journalist. Havana Requiem, the latest Seeley novel from the acclaimed author Paul Goldstein, opens after a year’s sobriety has earned him back most of what he lost: the partnership in his Manhattan law firm, if not his corner office; the wary respect of most of his partners; the lucrative clients—but not the gin-sharpened passion.

Then the renowned Cuban musician Héctor Reynoso enters his office with a simple request: help him and other composers who defined Cuba’s musical golden age of the 1940s and 1950s—the music that made the Buena Vista Social Club internationally famous—reclaim the copyright to their work. When Reynoso goes missing, Seeley’s reluctant promise to help draws him progressively deeper into Havana’s violent underbelly and a decades-long conspiracy that runs from the partners in his firm to the U.S. State Department to Cuba’s security police, who are willing to do anything to suppress the truth. And in the heat of Havana, Seeley will lose himself to his worst and best passions as his pursuit of justice becomes a desperate gambit to save not only his composers but the stunning Amaryll, who is playing her own dangerous game.

Defending Jacob by William Landay

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is respected. Admired in the courtroom. Happy at home with the loves of his life, his wife, Laurie, and teenage son, Jacob.

Then Andy’s quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a leafy park. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy’s own son—shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob.

Andy believes in Jacob’s innocence. Any parent would. But the pressure mounts. Damning evidence. Doubt. A faltering marriage. The neighbors’ contempt. A murder trial that threatens to obliterate Andy’s family.

It is the ultimate test for any parent: How far would you go to protect your child? It is a test of devotion. A test of how well a parent can know a child. For Andy Barber, a man with an iron will and a dark secret, it is a test of guilt and innocence in the deepest sense.

How far would you go?

Selection Committee for the 2013 prize includes:

• Michael Connelly, author of The Lincoln Lawyer and winner of the 2012 Harper Lee Prize.
• Katie Couric, former CBS News anchor, now host of the syndicated talk show “Katie.”
• Morris Dees, Founder and Chief Trial Attorney of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
• Dr. Sharon Malone, Physician and sister of the late Vivian Malone Jones, one of the first African-American students at the University of Alabama.
• Richard North Patterson, best-selling author of Fall From Grace.