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Atlanta Murder Squad #5

The Just and the Unjust

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Atlanta’s elite gather together at the wedding of the year. But when a high-end hooker crashes the party and ends up dead, shameful secrets of prominent men hang in the balance.

The kind of secrets that get folks killed.

Chance Meridian and his murder squad soon learn that the dead woman had a penchant for playing dangerous games with the wrong people. Powerful people—including a United States Senator whose decades-old hatred of Chance still burns hot. As past and present converge to put him in a vise, Chance discovers a hard truth about his line of work.

Some cases can only be solved at the point of a gun.

A standalone thriller in the best-selling Atlanta Murder Squad series, The Just and the Unjust is a pulsating mystery that will keep you hooked until the suspenseful end.

421 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 15, 2023

20 people are currently reading
68 people want to read

About the author

Lance McMillian

8 books44 followers
Lance McMillian is a recovering lawyer who gave up the courtroom for the classroom. For over a decade, Lance has taught Constitutional Law to future lawyers at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School. Now he writes books. The Murder of Sara Barton is his debut novel.

Being a great writer first requires being a great reader. Lance loves taut legal thrillers, heart-pounding crime fiction, and captivating murder mysteries. His literary inspirations include Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, John Grisham, Scott Turow, Michael Connelly, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ross Macdonald, Walker Percy, Agatha Christie, and, of course, Harper Lee.

Lance's writing career began as a weekly columnist for The Daily Tar Heel while an undergraduate at UNC. As a UGA law student, he also contributed columns to The Red and Black. In the academic realm, his scholarly work about lawyers and pop culture has appeared in leading law journals. The American Bar Association chose him to write a book chapter in its acclaimed project Lawyers in Your Living Room: Law on Television, which included chapters by actors Sam Waterston and James Woods.

But if Lance is being honest, writing novels is the most fun.

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5 stars
83 (70%)
4 stars
32 (27%)
3 stars
2 (1%)
2 stars
1 (<1%)
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0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
181 reviews
September 16, 2023
I absolutely love the Atlanta Murder Squad series and was excited that a 5th book was released! I purchased and read it immediately and can honestly say that the series just keeps getting better and better and I hope that the series will continue!

No spoilers from me or a recitation of what the book description already tells you.

What I really like is the strong character driven story. We see our main character, Chance, and the other members of the murder squad that we have gotten to know in the prior books in the series. We see growth in the characters which is really critical to me in any novel. We see the resolution of some old grudges, the history of which is explained in great detail.

I don't want to say anything more that might spoil this book or those starting at book one. I will just say that you should start at book one and read on because it only gets better!
Profile Image for Leah.
527 reviews
May 3, 2024
Hooray, this book is 4 1/2 stars, rounded up to 5! The title is a bit odd and I propose an alternate title: Who's Your Daddy? (LOL!)

This book is the best one in the series, even better than The Murder of Sara Barton, in my opinion. Each book in the series is a stand-alone mystery. However, they should be read in order due to things that occur outside of the main mystery.

Chance Meridian and The Atlanta Murder Squad are back. This plot has to do with a long-standing family feud between Chance and the powerful Roper family and, of course, a murder. There is a lot to unpack, and the author does it with smooth timing, revealing more mystery as the story moves along. There is a huge reveal in this book as to Chance's personal life.

As always, I would like a little more about the members of the Murder Squad, especially Scott, Marlon and JD. I like Kate better in this book than I did in the previous one, but I'm still ok with her role staying small. I always love Chance's ruminations about God and forgiveness. He is one of my favorite characters in a legal drama. The epilogue was good except that I wanted to know what the other characters were charged with - (No spoilers here!) I DID pick the protagonist for the main crime, but many other crimes were committed by many others throughout the book.

In reviews of Books 3-4, I lamented that the narrator, George Newbern wasn't as good as the original narrator, Christopher Lane. I still feel that is the case but I am warming up to Newbern. (I just wish he didn't go overboard with the T in Scott (ScoTT) and Kate (KaTTe).
449 reviews4 followers
January 7, 2026
Captivating. I highly recommend reading

This book deserves a 5 ⭐️ because it wasn’t predictable. The best book in this series yet. The twist and turns had me jumping from culprit to culprit but I stayed within my 3 chosen ones. I tried to eliminate it down to 1 but I couldn’t figure it out until the last few chapters. The plot was like a maze and no matter which culprit you choose because evidence pointed their way, there was always a dead end. I did figured out with no problem who ran down the diplomat. I’m glad Chance able to put the death of Amber and Cale to rest. He finally found his Mr. Smith. Chance stated that he loved his wife more than himself. I wonder about that that. Is that even true? Can a person love someone more than themselves? By Chance being a religious man, he should think that God is the only one you should love more than yourself. I’m just saying. That just stood out to me, nothing serious.
4 reviews
January 11, 2025
Probably my favorite yet

I've read the Atlanta murder series straight through and sad I have only one left to read. Hard to put down but maybe once finished maybe I'll get some projects around the house completed. Nice way to spend winter days.
38 reviews
January 21, 2024
Excellent. Would highly recommend. Great story and wonderful narration. Keeps you guessing right till the end.
Profile Image for Crystal Swafford.
424 reviews2 followers
February 5, 2024
This is the best in this series! Little kinks in the previous books are smoothed out and this one flows great. I hope he writes more!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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