Leo Schofield is somehow both the unluckiest and luckiest man I have ever heard of. Let's do a quick rundown:

Unlucky:
1. His wife, Michelle, is murdered
2. He is convicted of the murder
3. He is actually innocent
4. The state of Florida doesn't care

Lucky:
1. He isn't executed by Florida (and Florida loves killing people, but not as much as Texas!)
2. He finds himself a new wife while behind bars
3. He finds a bunch of people who want to free him, including a Pulitzer Prize winner who is the author of the book we're talking about
4. The man who actually killed his wife confesses to it (but to add to the unlucky list, Florida still doesn't care)

(Side note: Never change, Florida. Actually, no, you really need to change, Florida.)

This is not an exhaustive list and for the full list, you will need to read Gilbert King's exceptional Bone Valley. King chronicles not only Leo's life, but also the life of the real killer of his wife, Jeremy Scott. King also explains how the podcast the book is based on came into being, and how it ends up dovetailing directly into the effort to free Leo.

I hesitate to reveal much more from the plot, but I will say that this is not necessarily what you expect from a book like this. I expected a narrative that would excoriate Florida's judicial system and read like a thriller. The excoriation does occur, but King writes this book not as a thriller but as a long journey to catharsis. To use a metaphor, he writes a marathon, not a sprint. However, that doesn't mean it's plodding. King didn't win his Pulitzer by mistake. This is one of the easiest to read books of the year. I don't even know how many pages it was, but they flew by. Most importantly, King was able to humanize (but not excuse) a villain I never expected to care about. I guess the author may need to make room for another award on the shelf.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by NetGalley and Flatiron Books.)