Founder/director of the Texas Innocence Network, Dow brought his passionate concern about death-row injustices to his nonfiction The Autobiography of an Execution, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. His first novel features Rafael Zhettah, son of poor Mexican immigrants sentenced to death for the murder of the older, patron-of-the-arts wife he loved deeply. Exonerated by DNA evidence, he swears revenge.

DEBUT In this first novel from memoirist Dow (Things I've Learned from Dying), restaurateur Rafael Zhettah falls in love with Tieresse, an older, wealthy philanthropist. A year after the wedding, she's violently murdered. Despite an alibi and circumstantial evidence, Rafael is convicted, sentenced to death, and spends over six years on death row before previously withheld evidence is discovered and exonerates him. Unlike many who have been wrongfully convicted, Rafael's gratitude is mitigated by a need for retribution, which he quickly begins to seek out. The novel explores wrongful convictions, the death penalty and appeals process, life on death row, and exoneration. It's also about duplicity—the honest and hardworking man becoming a criminal only after a wrongful conviction; a legal system that seems too often to pit police, prosecutors, and judges against the truth—and features an ingenious, well-planned, and perfectly executed revenge. VERDICT This fast-paced legal thriller powerfully captures themes of love, surrender, despair, and vengeance. It will appeal to fans of Phillip Margolin and George Pelecanos, and pair nicely with Anthony Ray Hinton's memoir The Sun Does Shine. [See Prepub Alert, 10/22/18.]—George Lichman, Rocky River, OH

Defense attorney Dow, the founder of the Texas Innocence Project, makes an impressive fiction debut. Wealthy Tieresse Kerryman courts Rafael Zhettah, a chef from a humble background, after she has a meal at his Houston restaurant, and the pair soon marry. Their fairy tale romance comes to an end two years later when Tieresse is bludgeoned to death with a candlestick in their home and Zhettah is arrested for her murder. Zhettah was sleeping with one of the waitresses at his restaurant at the time, but his alibi isn't enough to persuade a jury of his innocence. On death row, Zhettah struggles to maintain his sanity, even as a team of dedicated appellate lawyers battle to avert his execution. Eventually, Dow reveals the truth about the circumstances behind the teasing opening prologue, in which Zhettah offers cake to two fellow prisoners, whom he addresses as "Your Honors," on the one-year anniversary of their captivity. The plot is a page-turner, and the addition of Dow's knowledge of the legal machinery of death and his nuanced characterization of his lead elevate this above similarly themed legal thrillers. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Apr.)

Defense attorney Dow, the founder of the Texas Innocence Project, makes an impressive fiction debut. Wealthy Tieresse Kerryman courts Rafael Zhettah, a chef from a humble background, after she has a meal at his Houston restaurant, and the pair soon marry. Their fairy tale romance comes to an end two years later when Tieresse is bludgeoned to death with a candlestick in their home and Zhettah is arrested for her murder. Zhettah was sleeping with one of the waitresses at his restaurant at the time, but his alibi isn't enough to persuade a jury of his innocence. On death row, Zhettah struggles to maintain his sanity, even as a team of dedicated appellate lawyers battle to avert his execution. Eventually, Dow reveals the truth about the circumstances behind the teasing opening prologue, in which Zhettah offers cake to two fellow prisoners, whom he addresses as "Your Honors," on the one-year anniversary of their captivity. The plot is a page-turner, and the addition of Dow's knowledge of the legal machinery of death and his nuanced characterization of his lead elevate this above similarly themed legal thrillers. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Apr.)