An edge-of-your-seat legal thriller from the undisputed master of the courtroom drama. Ray Atlee teaches law at the University of Virginia. His ailing father, Judge Atlee, was once a loved - and feared - titan, towering over local law and politics in the ancestral Atlee home of Clanton, Mississippi. And now, entering his last days, he calls Ray home to discuss the family estate. Newly single and far from happy, Ray reluctantly heads south to meet his father. He never does. The Judge dies too soon, but leaves behind a shocking secret which Ray believes only he knows; a secret that could destroy Clanton's very foundations. And it soon becomes clear that Ray's wrong. He's not the only one who knows.