The Color of Death

Set in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the novel opens with JD, seeking revenge over a family member's conviction in a case Frank defended, and Knox, JD's imposing accomplice, holding defense attorney Frank Hastings captive in a cabin near the North Pacolet River. JD forces Frank to watch a recording of Assistant District Attorney Colm Truesdale delivering a masterful closing argument in a trial Frank lost due to incompetence. After coercing Frank into writing a confession and staging his death to look like suicide, JD reveals a broader revenge plot targeting Frank's law partner, the presiding judge, and Colm himself.

Colm Truesdale narrates much of the novel in first person. A prosecutor haunted by personal loss, he visits a Spartanburg cemetery but cannot bring himself to reach the graves he intended to visit. He has been on extended leave and plans to resign, but when he receives a text about a homicide at a beauty salon on Ender Road, he drives to the scene.

The victim is Rachel Simone, a 26-year-old single mother and hairdresser. She has been stabbed 19 times, scissors are embedded in her chest, her hair has been cut and scattered, and a bloody shoeprint marks her face. The lead detective is Travis Hendrick, young and inexperienced, assigned instead of Colm's trusted colleague Captain Rick "Bones" Denton. The brutality of the crime scene suggests something far more personal than a robbery.

A parallel storyline follows Judge Martin Weber, a married trial court judge who has been having a secret affair with Rachel. The morning after the murder, Martin drives to Rachel's salon to retrieve a recording she made of him threatening to use his judicial influence over her custody battle. Finding police tape, he panics and calls Sheriff Lloyd Fuller, who confirms Rachel is dead and agrees to remove incriminating pages from her appointment book in exchange for confirmation of Martin's alibi. Martin claims he was home with his wife Tiffany and son Lucas, but he discovers blood on his hands and steering wheel and cannot account for his whereabouts due to a blackout from heavy drinking.

Martin takes desperate steps to cover his tracks. He has his car detailed at a shop owned by Beau Landry, a local power broker, and visits Beau at his nightclub to ask for help retrieving the recording. Beau agrees in exchange for Martin resolving a zoning appeal, and Beau's menacing head of security, Jean Boucher, becomes Martin's handler, possessing surveillance footage of Martin and Rachel that gives Beau permanent leverage. When Rachel's salon later burns down, Boucher takes credit for destroying potential evidence.

Colm decides not to resign and throws himself into the investigation. He reconnects with Bones at The Junction, a diner in Gowensville, where he meets Belle Atkins, a hardworking waitress attending Greenville Tech as a business major. Their growing friendship becomes a recurring thread: Colm helps Belle with her father's disability application and encourages her to consider law school, while Belle provides him a rare source of comfort and normalcy.

The investigation yields critical evidence. Forensics identifies the bloody shoeprints as men's Doc Martens, size 12. Travis finds bloody gloves and a knife near the salon, and surveillance footage captures a silver car speeding away. A partial license plate leads Bones to Martin Weber's silver Audi. Colm discovers evidence tampering: Body camera footage reveals that pages were removed from Rachel's appointment book while in police custody, and a forensic examiner enhances a reflected image showing Weber's name on the missing page. When Colm seeks a warrant for Rachel's phone records, Weber presides and denies it on spurious grounds. Colm takes the request to Judge Aaron Harrison, who authorizes the warrant. Cell phone data confirms Weber's phone was at the salon at the estimated time of the murder.

Meanwhile, JD and Knox surveil Colm's home with a hidden trail camera, enter his house with a spare key, plant ammunition in his nightstand, and photograph his family pictures. JD mails torn King of Hearts cards, dubbed the "Suicide King," as psychological torment, and a sniper fires shots at Colm while he runs at his old high school, deliberately bracketing him as a warning. JD's motive connects to the case Frank Hastings lost, one Colm successfully prosecuted.

Colm's personal losses are gradually revealed. His infant daughter Jaci died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and his wife Ally subsequently died by suicide. Colm blames himself for missing the signs of Ally's depression and lives alone in a house he cannot bear to change. His sister-in-law Mae Jennings, a forensic psychiatrist, repeatedly urges him to seek help.

Martin is arrested after a search of his home yields Doc Martens with blood spatter and a hidden burner phone whose last message from Rachel reads: "DON'T COME. LEAVE ME ALONE!" During the search, Tiffany assaults Martin after learning of his affair; she is arrested and her diamond engagement ring is confiscated as evidence. The case falters when DNA reveals the blood on tissues found near the salon's back door belongs not to Martin but to his son Lucas. District Attorney Cindy Porter, furious at the premature arrest, removes Colm from the case and assigns Dillon Bickler, a lateral hire, to take over.

Losing the case devastates Colm. Belle visits his home and discovers wedding photographs lining the hallway and Jaci's untouched nursery behind a closed door. Shocked that Colm never mentioned his family, she flees. That night, Colm starts Ally's car in the closed garage and sits as carbon monoxide fills the space. JD and Knox, watching through the trail camera, drive to the house. JD opens the garage door and saves Colm, not out of mercy but because JD wants him to suffer longer.

Mae takes Colm to a treatment facility. After five days, he has a breakthrough: Watching a nurse's ring tear her latex glove during a blood draw, he realizes a ring tore the killer's gloves at the crime scene. He escapes the facility with Bones's help and races to the courthouse, where Dillon is botching the preliminary hearing for Martin and Lucas Weber. Judge Nancy Mayweather, a sharp former public defender, exposes Dillon's failure to address the constitutional problem of admitting one co-defendant's statements against the other. Colm takes over, drops all charges against Lucas, and grants him full immunity, compelling his testimony. Lucas explains he borrowed his father's car and shoes to visit Rachel that morning and cut himself shaving, accounting for the DNA at the scene.

The defense calls Tiffany, who testifies Martin was home all night. Colm dismantles her alibi by proving her text messages were auto-generated, sent too quickly for a human to type. He presents the decisive evidence: Tiffany's diamond engagement ring, seized during an earlier arrest, contains Rachel's blood trapped between the diamond and the setting. The ring tore through both pairs of gloves during the stabbing. Tiffany confesses, revealing that she cut 19 inches of hair at Martin's request only for him to pursue a younger woman with long hair.

In the aftermath, Martin flees to Garden City Beach but encounters Boucher in a hotel elevator, drugged and descending to the basement, facing the consequences of his entanglement with Beau Landry. Bones reclassifies Frank Hastings's death as a homicide, and Frank's receptionist identifies Colm as a lawyer who contacted Frank about a disciplinary complaint, placing Colm at the center of JD's conspiracy. The novel closes at The Junction, where Colm and Belle share a hopeful conversation about her progress on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). In a corner booth, JD watches. She tears a King of Hearts in half, draws a noose on the Queen of Hearts, and introduces herself to Belle: "Jane. But my friends call me JD." The revenge plot is far from over.