Color of Law: A Novel
Published by University Press of Colorado
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Color of Law
is a rich, absorbing novel about good, evil, and the inability of the legal system to mediate between the two. Two white Milwaukee motorcycle cops pursue and kill a young black man on a bitterly cold winter night in 1959 and with the help of their superiors escape detection for twenty years. When at last the truth comes out -- first in a confession and then in a ground-breaking civil rights suit brought against the state by the victim's family many people find their present lives increasingly altered by this event from the past. This includes Milwaukee Times reporter Bob Joseph, mayoral candidate Andy Hedig, Hedig's wife Sarah, lawyer Charlie Simon, the sister of the murdered youth, and many more. Written in lean, evocative prose, Color of Law is a profoundly ambitious novel that renders precisely an American City and the lives that are lived there.
A selection from "Color of Law"
Reviews
"Likely to be my number one pick of the year, a rich crime novel, full of complex, flawed cahracters,
exploring the theme of injustice on a number of levels. On a cold winter night in
1959, Jimmy Norman, an unarmed black youth, is gunned down by hardcore motorcycle cop, John Rogan.
The killing is witnessed by tag-along bikeman, Tommey Paley. The incident is investigated, a weapon
is found near the dead youth, and a verdict of justifiable homicide is rendered. Flash
forward 20 years. Both cops are no longer on the force and Tommy's life is in the toilet
after a long downward spiral. He decides to spill the truth about the killing to Milwaukee Times
reporter, Bob Joseph. What follows is a media event, a $100-million civil rights trial, and the
ways in which those involved find their lives altered by an event from the past. Throw in a mayoral
election, an affair between Bob Joseph and a candidate's wife, and a secret carried by the dead
youth's sister. Milofsky throws many balls in the air and juggles them well. This is the author's
third novel following Playing from Memory and Eternal People."
-Tom Miller for "Poisoned Pen"
"This case is full of losers," observes Milwaukee attorney Charlie Simon in Milofsky's (Playing from Memory) meaty novel of racial injustice. Simon's comment is directed at Tommy Paley, a former motorcycle patrolman who witnessed the sport shooting of an unarmed young black man, Jimmy Norman, by a fellow bike man, John Grogan, a racist cop with a penchant for violence, one winter's night in 1959. Both Grogan and Paley were summarily dismissed from the force, and Paley (an accomplished loser to begin with) has narrowly survived a 20-year downward spiral and come clean to a local reporter, Bob Joseph. In 1959, no one questioned the verdict of justifiable homicide--no one except Jimmy Norman's family. But in 1979, the white population is forced to pay attention when Joseph's story reopens the case, and Jimmy's sister, Olivia, hires Simon to represent her in a $100-million civil rights suit against the city. Tensions flare as the Rev. Marcus Jackson, a black civic leader, galvanizes black support for the Norman case, and protesters clash with police. Local politicians Emil Mueller, who's the town mayor, and liberal Andy Hedig use the case to advance their own interests. A disturbing revelation about Olivia threatens the integrity of her civil case. Why did she disappear so quietly after the original verdict? Milofsky's writing is compelling, and his knowledge of law, journalism and politics is thorough. His characters, black or white, are never one-dimensional, and though he packs in more action and more subplots than the novel's structure can support, his ambitious book succeeds in coming to terms with complex racial issues. The novel's Midwest setting should give it a solid start in bookstores there."
-Publishers Weekly Sept. 25, 2000