Just Cause

A noble pursuit. A deadly result.

Reporter Matt Cowart has seen this before, a letter from a Death Row inmate pleading innocence. Sure, they're all innocent. Young girls are raping and killing themselves all the time. But the more Cowart digs into the case of Robert Earl Ferguson, the more he believes that, as a black man, Ferguson is a victim of hate and prejudice, and that the wrong man is going to be executed.

Cowart lets fly a series of hard-hitting investigative articles that ultimately not only free Ferguson, but win Cowart a Pulitzer. He's a hero, a celebrity, a big-hearted guy -- who has unwittingly set in motion a scenario of horror and death....

John Katzenbach has written three other novels: the Edgar-nominated In the Heat of the Summer, which was made into the movie The Mean Season; the New York Times bestseller The Traveler; and Day of Reckoning. He is also the author of the true-crime story First Born. Katzenbach has been the criminal court reporter for The Miami Herald and a featured writer for The Herald's Tropic Magazine. His work has appeared in many other newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He lives in western Massachusetts.