Tribes, by Marc Gimenez

Starting with his 2006 debut The Color of Law, Marc Gimenez has written some of the most entertaining legal fiction around.  His newest novel, Tribes, marks the fourth appearance of A. Scott Fenney, the SMU football star who ditched his high-dollar law firm job on principle and was eventually appointed a federal judge.  

Tribes opens with FBI agent Cat Pena, whom we met in The Absence of Guilt, taking part in a raid on a Dallas gang house.  She heroically takes out the gang members, rescuing a dozen girls who had been kidnapped for sex trafficking.  But when the dust settles, she discovers that one of the shooters was a 12-year-old black boy.  Why was he in the Latino gang's house?  Why is there no powder residue on his hands or fingerprints on the gun?  Did she really need to kill a black boy?

The story jumps right into today's headlines, and the streets erupt in anger over yet another innocent black boy killed by a white cop (yes, she's Latina, but still tagged as white).  Desperate for legal help, she calls on her estranged lover Fenney.  When she tells Fenney she's pregnant with his son, he decides he has no choice but to step down from the Federal bench and defend the mother of his son.

His daughters Boo and Pajamae are in fine form in Tribes, the highlight of the book.  They are precocious and full of wisdom and insight for their father.  Fenney seems to be getting more attractive with age; perhaps the power of the Federal bench draws women even more strongly.  Everywhere he turns, women are throwing themselves at him, especially the D.A. who is charging Cat.  Her power-hungry personality and her chosen means of advancement--using the men around her--reminded me of a certain D.A. on the Left coast who has come to prominence of late. . . .

Per his habit, Gimenez is not afraid to take on sticky subjects.  In this case, let's just say that Tribes probably won't be chosen for the BLM book of the month.  But he presents the issues in a thoughtful, reasonable way.  Whether discussing black crime, police brutality, or the application of the Supremacy Clause, Gimenez lays out the case straightforwardly and with legal clarity. 

Gimenez might be found guilty of overplaying Fenney's magnetism, or of overplaying the D.A.'s seductive evil, but I won't press charges.  I enjoyed the book thoroughly, with its twists and turns.  The denouement made me gasp, but left me gasping for the next Scott Fenney book.