A lawyer, pastor and
best-selling novelist,
Randy Singer examines
the deep issues of life
and law in his books. His latest legal thriller, The Last Plea Bargain (Tyndale House), is no exception. The novel is loosely based on the raw emotions Singer encountered during the infamous Summerville case where he represented three daughters who lost their father at the hands of their stepmother. Weaving an intricate plot around the quest for justice (and bringing back favorite character Jamie Brock from False Witness), Singer has crafted a page-turner which addresses plea bargaining, the death penalty and creating false memories in people.
“This book was my effort to peel back the onion on these issues and show that sometimes justice isn’t as black and white as we want to make it,” Singer says. “When I hit a big ethical topic on which Christians differ, I always try to give it a balanced approach. I want to give perspectives and facts readers might not normally consider. I tried to look at this realistically, not in a preachy way, from every side. From the victim and prosecutor’s perspective, the defendant’s and the defense lawyer’s. I think it’s uninteresting when you present a one-sided view of an issue on which people have passion and opinions. Then the book feels like it’s just a pulpit, a soapbox.”
Singer’s hope is that The Last Plea Bargain will spur readers to think about the intricacies of the criminal justice system. But more importantly, he wants people to ponder the greater dilemma of grace versus justice. “If we can’t let go of things, it destroys us as much as it does the person who caused the injustice in the first place,” Singer says. “I hope to shine a little ray of sunlight on these bigger themes.”