The Indictment

The Story

With The Indictment, MacKenzie Canter has written a suspense novel to rival the bestsellers of Scott Turow and Ross Thomas. Gracefully crafted, wise in the way of the dark impulses that rule many lives, this cracking good story marks the debut of one of the year's most exciting suspense writers. Kendall Wilkinson had folded the hand dealt to him by privilege and family tradition. He had just about convinced himself - aided by bourbon when conviction wavered - that he was content living off his trust fund and practicing a little law in a picturesque tidewater town when his friend and cousin Roger Dufault, a real estate developer, is found bludgeoned to death. Kendall is haunted by memories of his father who was disgraced in a trumped-up scandal and driven to suicide. He has made a career of tentativeness, of being resolutely irresolute, which he justifies as the only smart option in a treacherous world. But Roger's murder opens one choice too many. The long-term affair Kendall has been having with Peyton, Roger's wife, takes on sudden, dismaying consequences, including the possibility that it will implicate Kendall in the murder. Kendall discovers that a choice not made can be a trap door, a realization harrowingly confirmed by what he uncovers as the court-appointed administrator of Roger's estate. In attempting to untangle the web of politics, financial chicanery, and blackmail Roger bequeathed, Kendall finds himself ensnared and forced to confront the truth about his life and friends and the Old South that lingers as a ghost moon over the dawning of the New South. This vivid story, by turns enlightening and surprising, is more than a suspenseful tale exceedingly well told. It is anovel of memories, manners, and morals braided into a rope of crosses and double-crosses which whips the plot to a most unexpected resolution.