Miscarriage of Justice
Kip Gayden
Center Street, Feb 2008, $22.99
ISBN: 9781599956879
In 1896 a pastor's sixteen years old daughter Anna Dennis and a Vanderbilt University medical student Walter Dotson meet at the Red Boiling Springs Christian Camp in Tennessee. They fall in love and he arranges for his final year’s internship at Lafayette City Hospital where she does volunteer work. He courts her and soon they marry. Twelve years later with four children they move to Gallatin, Tennessee.
By 1912 Anna felt the spark in her marriage was barely flickering. She tries to reignite it, but Walter seems ignorant of her desires. Instead she turns to newcomer Charlie Cobb who showers her with attention. Not long after that she is tried for murder.
MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE is based on a true event that had much of the southeast fascinated by the murder trial. When the story line reenacts the marriage and the affair, it lacks spark although that is needed to set time, place and relationships. However once the plot turns to the trial and the media feeding frenzy, readers will not be able to stop until the verdict. Overall this is a fine historical fiction in which the legal thriller elements make Kip Gayden’s novel worth reading.
Harriet Klausner
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