EVERYBODY LOVED ATTORNEY MIKE SAMUELSON. WELL, EXCEPT FOR WHOEVER KILLED HIM AND CHOPPED HIM UP. The cops are baffled as the killer seems to know all their moves. Mike's brother, Steve, is a reformed fire-and-brimstone preacher who was just mending their minced relationship, but now he must figure out who minced his brother. A strange little man and a high-school beauty whose false claim of rape may have touched off the murder seem anxious to help, but can Steve and this unlikely pair figure out who the killer is before he realizes they're chasing him? "MINISTER OF JUSTICE is a gritty, revenge-soaked roller coaster of a book. Strong characterizations and clearly detailed scenes made me want to be the one chasing the bad guy! If you like your murder mysteries raw and honest, this is one you'll find hard to put down."-Daryl Buckner, author of The Tutor and Candy From a Stranger. "Leif Wright has created a compelling series of eastern Oklahoma characters and intertwined them in a series of grisly murders centering on the protagonist who becomes the MINISTER OF JUSTICE. The plot twists will keep readers awake late into the night as they follow each development. The well-written prose gripped me early and remained fascinating."-Betty Ridge, author of Deadlines: Covering Crime, Courage and Characters. " 'Brutal, ritualistic slaying'. The reader is introduced to those words at the beginning of Leif Wright's MINISTER OF JUSTICE and the tension never lets up in this classic page-turner mystery. Wright crafts the minds and motivations of all his characters artfully that grow in significance and depth as he carries the reader through the novel exploring each of his complex characters. A quartet of unlikely characters pursue the serial killer and along the way discover insights to themselves as well as solve other heinous crimes. We can only hope we see them together again."-Bob Zeanah, author of Work to Do and No Anchor (forthcoming)
The Story Behind This Book
Minister of Justice is based in part on my real-life transformation from fundamentalist pastor to way more religiously liberal. It was a journey over a lot of existential bumpy dirt roads that exposed a lot of pain I had inflicted over the years with my tunnel-vision view of how the world worked. Of course, a lot of the book is also fiction (my brother is still alive and well), but Steve Samuelson's journey is largely my own.
