[b:South of Justice|29743881|South of Justice (Compass Crimes #1)|Joni M. Fisher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1459364600s/29743881.jpg|49915405] is an excellent mystery/legal thriller with a cast of excellent characters. I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend it as a great fairly light read. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was due to a couple of problems with the legal plot.

[Possible small spoilers below]

The legal plot revolves around a case of kidnapping resulting in a death, meaning that the defendant would be exposed to felony murder charges. The book repeatedly talks about the felony murder charge and the potential for a death penalty. However, the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the crime, and since Roper v. Simmons (543 U.S. 551) was decided in 2005, it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment on defendants who were juveniles at the time of their crime. Also, in order to bring in the felony murder potential, the district attorney would need to charge the defendant with felony murder and provide evidence for it at the trial, but the DA never charged the defendant with felony murder or spoke of it at the trial.

Another, smaller, nit to pick was the sudden uptick in the amount of religion at the end of the book. Yes, one of the brothers was a preacher, but it had no bearing on the plot. It just seemed like there was more religion in the last 20 pages of the book than in the previous 300 pages, and it didn't seem to serve any purpose to advancing the plot or concluding the book.

(Note: this book was kindly provided to me by the author via a Goodreads giveaway.) ( )