A Perfect Storm of Injustice

It could happen to you. Charles Wilkerson, a very ordinary man, is unexpectedly launched by the legal system on a harrowing journey to hell and back in Jack Saarela's fourth novel about the everyday injustice in America's justice system. Charles thinks he has the perfect life. He has a good job as a manager at a local grocery store, a loving wife, and a three-year-old little boy. Yes, sometimes the family gets strange looks from the neighbors in their quiet suburb-Charles is black and his wife, Dana, is white. And even in the 1990s, that is often frowned on in Palm Beach County, Florida. Charles' life changes forever when he is called home in the middle of the day by the Palm Beach, Florida County sheriff and informed Charles that his wife has been murdered. Charles is the primary and sole suspect in the brutal beating and murder, even though he had no prior criminal record. While Charles proclaims his innocence, he is was arrested and tried for the murder and sentenced to Florida's death row. Charles spends the next quarter-century of his life in prison before a series of startling events lead to his exoneration. A Perfect Storm of Injustice is based on the real-life experiences of several individuals who were victims of a wrongful murder conviction. Since 1973, at least 172 such individuals have been wrongfully imprisoned for murders they didn't commit. That's up to 10% of the total number of persons sentenced to prison. Saarela, the author of Love Out of Reach, Accidental Saviors, and Beginning Again at Zero, has once again written a suspenseful, thoughtful and eye-opening true-to-life novel in the tradition of John Grisham's An Innocent Man and Scott Turow's Reversible Errors.