When 19 year old Bethel Newton accuses Elias Claymore of raping her, in David Kessler's exciting new thriller No Way Out, America is deeply divided on the issue. In his youth, Claymore was a Black power militant, as well as a convicted rapist and escaped convict. But after undergoing a Pauline conversion, he came back to America as a born again Christian to serve out his sentence and reinvented himself as a respectable, neoconservative TV talkshow host

In the face of the new serious charge, Claymore turns to his friend Alex Sedaka for help. Alex is persuaded to share the defence with a law firm appointed by Claymore's insurers and finds himself working with Andromeda ("Andi") Phoenix, whose lesbian lover Gene works at a rape crisis centre. But when Andi makes an issue of the under-representation of African-Americans on the jury, she starts receiving anonymous threats.

Meanwhile Alex finds holes in the prosecution case, such as the victim's description of the attacker as well as her own past. But he hits a major obstacle when he comes up against the DNA evidence. Over the course of the trial, Alex must battle his way through jury tampering and a malicious computer hacker to find out who is telling the truth. And while all this is going on, Alex's on-ex-girlfriend, TV reporter Martine Yin, is covering the case. But is she getting too close and putting herself in danger?

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" A cracking thriller."

James O'Brien, LBC Radio

"This will keep you on the edge of your seat"

Closer

San Francisco lawyer Alex Sedaka is surprised when California governor Chuck Dusenbury offers eleventh-hour clemency to Sedaka's client Clayton Burrow - currently on Death Row -  on the condition that Burrow reveals where he buried the body of the victim. But that's only the beginning in Mercy the first book in David Kessler's exciting Alex Sedaka series.  Alex is even more surprised when Burrow turns down the offer, insisting that he was framed by the missing girl herself. Until then, Sedaka – who only recently took over the case – thought that Burrow was guilty. But now he is not so sure.

Thus begins a race against time to unravel the mystery, with the unlikely cooperation of the mother of the missing girl, who persuaded the governor to make the clemency offer in the first place. Aided by his secretary, legal intern and computer expert son, Alex finds evidence of school bullying, marital infidelity and even child abuse.  But with the clock ticking down to Burrow’s execution, Alex is frustrated at every turn by elusive evidence that casts doubt on Burrow’s guilt, but is not enough to satisfy the rigorous requirements of the courts at this late stage.

As the execution looms ahead, the race turns frantic… and dangerous.  Combining elements of Harlan Coben, John Grisham, Dan Brown and Prison Break, MERCY, this is the first in a series featuring US lawyer Alex Sedaka.

Out now! Available from all good bookshops.

Click here to read the first chapter...