The Devil's Advocate

The seventh installment in Steve Cavanagh's Eddie Flynn series opens in a death chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama. District Attorney Randal Korn watches as Darius Robinson, a 25-year-old convicted under the state's party laws for driving the getaway car in a robbery-homicide, is executed in the electric chair. Robinson's defense attorney, Cody Warren, waits on the phone for the acting lieutenant governor, Patchett, to commute the sentence, but Korn pretends to support clemency before recommending the execution proceed. The prologue establishes that Korn became a prosecutor specifically because it gave him the legal power to kill.

Five months later, Skylar Edwards, a 20-year-old college student and waitress at Hogg's Bar outside Buckstown, disappears after her shift. She accepts a ride from someone she recognizes, but the driver punches her before she can finish texting her father. Her body is later found buried headfirst in a narrow vertical grave behind the bar, her front sunburned, cause of death listed as strangulation.

Three months later, Eddie Flynn, a New York defense attorney and former con artist, is recruited by Alexander Berlin, a government operative who moves between intelligence agencies. Berlin reveals he once helped Korn win re-election and has since discovered Korn sent 115 people to death row in 17 years, the highest rate of any DA in US history. Berlin hired Warren to defend Andy Dubois, a 19-year-old charged with Skylar's murder, but Warren has gone missing, and Berlin suspects Korn and Sheriff Colt Lomax are responsible. The evidence against Andy includes his blood under Skylar's fingernails, a scratch on his shoulder, a signed confession, a jailhouse informant's claim, and bar owner Ryan Hogg's testimony that Andy and Skylar argued that night. Eddie takes the case pro bono.

Eddie flies to Buckstown with Harry Ford, a retired judge who serves as his consultant. The town is hostile: hotels refuse them rooms and their tires are slashed. A parallel narrative introduces the Pastor, the secret leader of the Knights of the White Camellia, a white supremacist organization, who meets with Francis Edwards, Skylar's grieving father, giving him money and grooming him with racist ideology. The chapter reveals the Pastor strangled Skylar to death.

Eddie visits Warren's office, where office manager Betty Maguire reveals Warren's last text asked about the letters "F C" and that Warren hired an independent pathologist, Dr. Farnesworth, who found marks on Skylar's forehead omitted from the official autopsy. Unable to access Andy through normal channels, Eddie gets himself arrested and sneaks into Andy's cell. He finds Andy emaciated and beaten. Andy reveals Lomax promised him a short sentence if he cooperated and pledged to care for Andy's mother. Andy does not know Korn is seeking the death penalty. Eddie's partner, Kate Brooks, arrives from New York and secures Eddie's release.

Korn corners Andy's mother Patricia outside her workplace, offering money if she testifies that Andy confessed and threatening a painful execution if she refuses. Eddie and his investigator, Bloch, witness the encounter. Separately, the Pastor calls Korn on a burner phone, revealing a secret alliance: Korn does not know the Pastor killed Skylar, but both benefit from Andy's conviction.

Eddie's team builds their defense. At the crime scene, Harry recognizes the staging of Skylar's body as a tableau from the Book of Revelation: the sunburn, the feet pointing at the moon, and star-shaped marks on her forehead forming a biblical pattern. At a gas station, they discover a deputy downloaded and deleted security footage from the night of the murder. They also note that Skylar's phone was not found among her possessions, concluding the killer must have taken it. Court hearings go badly: The governor declares Andy guilty on television, poisoning the jury pool; Judge Chandler sets bail at $500,000; and Korn has the gas station clerk arrested on fabricated charges, destroying his credibility as a witness. Eddie and Bloch execute a sleight-of-hand con at the bail office, making $125,000 in cash appear as the full amount, and Andy is released in terrible condition.

Kate photographs Hogg's hand and spots a gold ring with a five-pointed star matching the marks on Skylar's forehead. The Pastor and Francis plant the bodies of Warren and Betty near Andy's home as a warning. The Pastor also strangles Skylar's mother, Esther Edwards, staging the death as a suicide to destroy Francis's last reason to live. Lomax's conscience breaks after his wife Lucy dies. He finds a letter she left urging him to "cut this man out of your life for good." He confronts Korn, revealing he has the gas station footage on a flash drive showing the real killer. Korn shoots Lomax, takes the flash drive, and stages the scene as a suicide.

Eddie obtains autopsy photographs from Dr. Farnesworth. Bloch corrects his reading of the letters on Skylar's forehead: not "FC" but "FOP," standing for the Fraternal Order of Police, a law enforcement membership organization. The five-pointed star is a police shield, meaning the killer wore an FOP ring. Eddie recruits juror Sandy Boyette in a counter-sting: if Korn approaches her, she will record the encounter using a hidden camera.

The trial begins with Eddie deliberately provoking his own contempt arrest, ensuring the jury focuses on Korn's misconduct. Kate takes over and cross-examines county medical examiner Fiona Price, forcing her to acknowledge the omitted bruising and introducing evidence that the marks match FOP rings identical to one worn by Assistant DA Tom Wingfield. Eddie exposes the jailhouse informant, who admits Korn promised him early release in exchange for fabricating Andy's confession. Eddie then destroys the DNA evidence: the fingernail clippings lacked nail polish despite Skylar wearing bright red polish, and their powder residue matches Lucy Lomax's cancer medications. Using Lucy's death certificate and a letter in which she thanked Lomax for crushing her pills into yogurt, Eddie demonstrates the clippings came from Lomax, who contaminated his fingers and scratched Andy after beating him.

Meanwhile, Bloch discovers the White Camellia's larger plot: hit lists, schematics of the governor's mansion, and plans for coordinated attacks. The Pastor eliminates other members and plants materials to frame Francis as a domestic terrorist. Francis, broken by the murders of his daughter and wife, loads a truck with propylene and drives it to the hotel where Andy and Patricia are staying. Harry climbs into the cab with a bottle of bourbon and tells Francis how the White Camellia destroyed his life, killing his daughter to recruit him and murdering his wife to remove his last inhibition. Kate evacuates Andy and Patricia. Francis puts the detonator down and steps out, only to be shot by deputies. Before dying, he identifies the group's leader as "the Pastor."

On the final day of trial, juror Taylor Avery, a dairy farmer, stands and asks Judge Chandler why Korn is threatening to seize his land unless he votes guilty. Korn accuses Eddie of jury tampering, but Sandy produces video from the hidden camera showing Korn planting cash at her apartment and coercing her vote. The judge dismisses the case for prosecutorial misconduct, and Korn is arrested.

Berlin eliminates the remaining threats. He offers Korn immunity for the Pastor's identity and the footage, then leaves his associate, Anderson, alone with Korn, who is later reported dead. Berlin intercepts Governor Patchett's car on the highway, shoots Acting Sheriff Shipley, and finds Skylar's missing phone wedged between the seats, proving Patchett was in the car with Skylar the night she disappeared. Berlin kills Patchett and stages the scene as an assassination.

The following morning, the $375,000 remaining in Berlin's account is donated to a charity funding death-row appeals. Eddie presents a court order returning $500,000 in bail to Andy, the difference written off as stolen by Korn. Kate ensures the fabricated charges against the gas station clerk are dropped and connects Avery with a lawyer to protect his farm. As the team flies home, Eddie reflects that it was Avery, an ordinary farmer who spoke the truth at great personal cost, who saved Andy's life.