Liza loves to sing. She changed her life direction when her father Langston Brown was convicted and sentenced to death row for a crime he did not commit. She qualifies in Law to help her father. She becomes the Assistant Director of Project Joseph in Denver.
Eli is grieving the death of his wife. Five years on it is no easier for him. Liza sings at his place a couple of nights a week.
I loved the pace of the story and although it is fiction it relates to some real events. I was hooked from start to finish.

Thank you so much to Crooked Lane Books @CrookedLaneBooks and Netgalley @Netgalley for this e-arc. All thoughts are my own.




Liza has firsthand knowledge of how the justice system has failed, it’s why she became a lawyer. Now she works at a nonprofit to free those who have been wrongfully imprisoned. When Moses King reaches out to her, Liza goes to work to prove his innocence. She recruits Eli to help, but Eli is dealing with some demons and not able to fully commit to the case.

Frustrated, Liza turns to Moses’s accuser, who was never able to identify him clearly. But she is hiding some dark secrets, and not keen on them being exposed. Can Liza clear Moses’s name when the deck is stacked against him?




Books that are based on, even loosely, fact, just hit me a little harder than pure fiction, and this was one of those books. I did struggle to get into this one and almost DNF’d it a few times, but I ended up being glad I didn’t. Things picked up towards the middle of the book, and by then I was too invested to put it down. I just needed to know how things resolved, and the struggle ended up being worth it. I enjoyed learning about Liz, and while I didn’t always like her, I respected her and loved reading about her choices.

This book would be great for a book club because it opens the door to great social issue discussion. I could imagine having some great discussion after reading this one. I also loved hearing that the author gives a portion of all his proceeds to subgroups of the Innocence Project. That alone makes me a reader for life as I love hearing and learning about ways people give back.

I liked this book for the views and perspectives. In 1992, Claudette was attacked and blinded in her apartment. Moses King was charged with the crime. Now years later, he writes to Lawyer Liza Brown to convince her he never did it.

I liked this book to show how messed up the justice system is. Not just for people of color, but women and underprivileged and many other groups. It’s frustrating. I’m so thankfully at least science has come farther to prove crimes.

Liza Brown is young black Lawyer and she is working at Project Joseph based in Denver. It has been initiated to get people justice. Liza lost her father Langston Brown, he was falsely convicted and sentence to death. She tried every possible thing but she couldn’t clear his name because of corrupted legal system. He is not the only one, people are getting wrongly convicted of crimes. She gave up singing to become a lawyer, now she receives a letter from a man who was wrongfully convicted on the basis of a dream and the only evidence is their neighbour’s testimony. While Dexter was convicted of murder but no one represented him before Liza. She did justice with his case but she is still fighting for Moses King. Some characters were real as it has been mentioned in the Author’s note while some were fictional. I deeply felt for each of them. Eli is such an heartwarming person, I was kind of hoping a different ending. But reading about Liza’s father and Antoinette brought tears in my eyes. The author did a great job by writing this book. This is a must read.

Many Thanks to Author, Publisher and Netgalley.

This story is a portrait of social discrepancies and historically deep divides between neighborhoods in Denver. I read the debut novel from Mr. Justice and was pleased to see a second. This could be read on it’s own, I thought the first was thought provoking. Texans are known for fleeing to Colorado when our summers become unbearable. As a child I spent many vacations in the Denver area and had no knowledge of the darker side, some of the history referenced and how far back it goes. The theme addresses social inequity with fictional characters Liza and Eli.
Liza became an attorney to free her father from a wrongful conviction. Although she’s good at it, it wouldn’t have been her career choice. She has an incredible voice and still sings sometimes at Eli’s jazz club, a historical old building called the Roz. Eli is the widower whose dream was to reopen the club with the love of his life. Even after years, he’s still consumed by debilitating grief and despair, unable to move forward from the loss of his wife. The plot centers on Liza’s determination to free an imprisoned man she’s certain is innocent. The legal aspects of the case are fascinating.There is darkness and grief as both Eli and Liza struggle with their past failures, current police responses and moving forward with their lives. There are many relevant social issues worth further discussion. It left me with lots to think about.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing the digital advance reader copy of “A Dream in the Dark” by Robert Justice, publishers Crooked Lane Books, expected publication 07/23/2024. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

This was such a hard hitting book, especially knowing that it was based off true cases. It follows Liza, a young Black lawyer and single mother who works at Project Joseph, an innocence project based in Denver, CO in the 1990s. She originally got her law degree to help her father, who was on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, she is working non stop to exonerate two men also wrongly convicted, one of whom was convicted solely on a dream the victim had.

The character of Liza really is an incredible person, she is passionate, smart, hardworking, and determined. There is nothing she won’t do to make sure that people who are wrongly accused of a crime are not executed or have to spend their entire life in prison.

A Dream in the Dark is such an inspiring and infuriating book about the injustice of the justice system and the deep-rooted racism within it. It made me want to throw the book at the wall at times, knowing how difficult it was for Liza and other members of the Black community to get justice. This book made me feel all the emotions and I loved it even more when I found out that for every copy sold, the author donates a portion to subgroups of the Innocence Project.

A very powerful novel about police corruption in the black society.
Liza a black woman who leaves her dream to pursue a future to help her dad show his innocence. Unfortunately she was not able to save her dad but has the chance to continue and help out more people who are convicted of crimes that they are wrongly accused. With the help of Eli a good friend they uncover the real truth of these convictions. And to prove that the police are corrupt and targeting the black community.
I highly recommend this to anyone who believes that the justice system is flawed. But there is some good people in the world who are willing to help show the truth and prove that people in power sometimes use this to their own advantage. At first it was a bit hard to get into but I pushed thru and I’m so glad I did. It turned out it was hard to put down and I highly recommend reading it.
Based on true events

First of all, thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this book based on its description, but I found it very difficult to get into. I had to keep re-reading paragraphs because I lost my focus while reading. Overall, I'm glad I stuck with it because the last half of the book definitely picks up and keeps the reader invested, but the first half almost lost me.

It took me a little bit to get into this book , but man oh man am I sure glad I kept going.

This was so eye opening, and thought provoking. I absolutely love the story line and premise behind this book.