The Final Case: A novel

From the award-winning, best-selling author of Snow Falling on Cedars-a moving father-son story that is also a taut courtroom drama and a bold examination of privilege, power, and how to live a meaningful life.

A girl dies one late, rainy night a few feet from the back door of her home. The girl, Abeba, was born in Ethiopia. Her adoptive parents, Delvin and Betsy Harvey-conservative, white fundamentalist Christians-are charged with her murder.

Royal, a Seattle criminal attorney in the last days of his long career, takes Betsy Harvey’s case. An octogenarian without a driver’s license, he leans on his son-the novel’s narrator-as he prepares for trial.

So begins The Final Case, a bracing, astute, and deeply affecting examination of justice and injustice-and familial love. David Guterson’s first courtroom drama since Snow Falling on Cedars, it is his most compelling and heartfelt novel to date.