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CONFESSIONS OF AN INNOCENT MAN

David R. Dow

A thrillingly suspenseful debut novel, and a fierce howl of rage that questions the true meaning of justice.

Rafael Zhettah is a guilty man: He betrayed his wife and took two people prisoner, executing an extraordinary and calculated act of revenge. Rafael Zhettah is an innocent man: He has been wrongly imprisoned for the crime that has destroyed his life, the murder of his beloved wife. When a universally admired Austin billionaire, a dedicated humanitarian and patron of the arts, is found bludgeoned in her home, her husband, Rafael, fifteen years her junior, the son of poor Mexican immigrants, a cook, is the obvious and only suspect. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death; sent to death row where monsters like him belong. The only problem: He’s completely innocent. Six years pass, when overlooked DNA evidence saves him from execution at the eleventh hour. He vows to use his regained freedom to take revenge on the people and the system that stole years of his life. This is a heart-stoppingly suspenseful, devastating, page-turning debut novel. A thriller with a relentless grip that wants you to read it in one sitting. David Dow has dedicated his life to the fight against the death penalty, to righting the horrific injustices of the death penalty regime in Texas. He delivers the perfect modern parable for exploring our complex, uneasy relationships with punishment and reparation in a horrifically unjust world.

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Published 2019-04-09 by Dutton (Penguin Random House)

Comments

“A terrifying modern-day revenger’s tale, one, whose furious, irresistible momentum will sweep you up— and make you think.” – Terry Teachout, drama critic for The Wall Street Journal

“An impressive fiction debut…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.”


“A debut novel that’s a page-turner with a message...[Dow’s] criminal justice work is a clear influence on this novel, and his passion bleeds through on every page. The claustrophobic nature of prisons, the routine cruelty, the anonymous suffering, the decrepit conditions--they all come through in straightforward, well-written prose... A solidly suspenseful novel.”

“This thought-provoking debut…[an] absorbing tale of misfortune takes readers inside the mind of a good man who’s desperate to prove his innocence as well as inside the world of a maximum-security prison and the horror that is death row…the questions of who gets justice and why court procedure seems to take such precedence over individual lives will stay with readers after the satisfying ending to this surprising read.”

“David R. Dow’s stories are always compelling. His observations are unflinching and true.”

– John Grisham, New York Times bestselling author on Things I’ve Learned From Dying