The Truth Of It

A page-turning legal thriller and searing social commentary on immigration, sexual assault, and racism in small-town America—for fans of Laura Lippman’s Wilde Lake. A hot-button legal case fuels a community’s smoldering hostility—but the dark secret at its heart could set the town ablaze. Public defender Julia Geary moves through life in simmering resentment—at her husband, a soldier killed in Iraq, leaving her a single mother; at her low-paying job; and at her overbearing mother-in law, whose home she shares. She longs for a breakout case, and it arrives when members of the high school soccer team report seeing a teammate—Iraqi refugee Sami Mohammed—assaulting a girl in the locker room. In a town where animosity against refugees has already reached a fever pitch, Julia throws all her energy into Sami's defense. She finds an ally in high school principal Dom Parrish, who believes Sami is innocent, and the case suddenly turns red hot. Then she begins receiving vicious threats against her family, and a senseless act of violence leaves Sami in a coma. And finally, a crop of new evidence emerges that points to the town's most prominent citizens and pits Julia against powerful forces set on burying the truth once and for all. If Sami survives and Julia can prove him innocent, it will be the case of a lifetime. But now it's her life that's on the line.

Justice comes at a price. Grace Hughes has finally uncovered the truth behind the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter. But now that she knows the truth, she must act on it. Her conscience demands nothing less. With the help of an unlikely ally, Grace hatches a plan to insinuate herself into the lives of her family’s killers. Her goal is simple: infiltrate their organization and gather evidence to use against them at trial. But as Grace delves deeper into the criminal world, the danger to herself and her family escalates. As the clock ticks down, Grace must balance her desire for justice with the need to keep her loved ones safe. The Truth of It is a fast-moving, heartfelt thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seat until the last satisfying page.

Modern relativism and postmodern thought in culture and language challenge the 'truth' of history. This book considers how historians, confined by argument of their own cultures, can still discover truths about the past.

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.