She’s learning the law with the highest stakes of all—life and death.

Suffolk law student Susan Sorella knows hard work. By day, she’s grinding through classes and a brutal internship with Bobby Coughlin, a once-brilliant defense attorney now coasting on quick pleas and old war stories. By night, she’s waiting tables at her father’s North End restaurant.

One night, the head of Boston’s mob walks in with a message: someone put a bullet in the mob’s accountant and now an innocent man is about to take the fall—if Susan doesn’t fix it, blood will be on her hands. The judge wants a quick guilty plea. The DA wants a win. Bobby wants out. But Susan sees what nobody else does—something about the case doesn’t add up.

To prove it, she’ll have to fight not only a ruthless prosecutor, crooked FBI agents, and a slippery witness, but also Bobby’s jaded view of the system. He’s seen too much to believe justice is possible. She hasn’t seen enough to give up.

Susan isn’t sworn in yet, but she has a gift for digging up the truth—and the grit to risk everything for it. If she fails, an innocent man goes to prison. If she succeeds, she might paint a target on her own back.

The case is unwinnable. The danger is real. But Susan’s not backing down.