Counsel for the Defense

When Dr. David West, a respected physician and pillar of the small town of Westville, is arrested for accepting a bribe connected to the town's new water-works project, his entire life unravels in scandal. His daughter Katherine has just returned home after years away, expecting to find the same quiet community she left. Instead, she discovers her father in chains, his reputation in tatters, and a town hungry for someone to blame. In an era when women cannot vote and are barely permitted in courtrooms, Katherine makes a audacious choice: she will defend him herself. What follows is a fiercely determined woman's immersion in the messy machinery of justice, where she must battle not only a corrupt system but the skeptical eyes of a town that has already rendered its verdict. Arnold Bruce, the gruff newspaper editor who first reported the accusations, watches with grudging fascination as this unlikely lawyer pieces together the truth. The novel pulses with the tension of early courtroom drama and quietly radical ideas about who gets to speak for justice.