text: David Baldacci has a knack for writing fiction that sucks you in and holds you no matter what the story.  Part of the talent is to introduce interesting characters.   This book is no exception.  Sara Evans is a clerk working for a Supreme Court justice.  She is quite close to another clerk (Michael Fiske) who works for a different judge.  Michael asks Sara to marry him but Sara really loves Michael's brother John, who Sara has only seen once and never officially met.
  
  Michael comes across an appeal that intrigues him (to say exactly why would be a spoiler and it is only revealed very late in the book as to exactly what intrigued him) so much that he pulls it out before it is filed and goes to visit the requestor.  That happens to be a Rufus Harms who is serving a life sentence in an Army prison for murdering a girl.
  
  When Michael goes to see Harms, practically all Hell breaks loose and Harms realizes he is in danger himself and some mysterious evil guys from the prison murder Michael.  Apparently there was some secrets in Harms appeal that some powerful unknown men do not want known.
  
  Michael's murder is investigated by his brother John (an ex-cop who is now a defense lawyer for the lowest of the low criminals) and he enlists the aid of Sara who was close to Michael and knows some things about Michael.  Sara is instantly in love with John and the more they start investigating the more they put their lives at risk from the unknown powerful men.  Additionally, the police start to suspect John of the murder of his brother especially when he is named as the sole beneficiary of Michael's life insurance.
  
  Meanwhile Rufus Harms has escaped prison from some of those men that tried to kill him.  
  
  So we have tension throughout to see if Rufus will survive as well as John and Sara before the evil guys get them.
  
  There is a lot of good information about what goes on behind the scenes at the Supreme Court.  A good rea
  