Discovering Grace: A Mercy Johnson Novel

by Reita Pendry

A few people wanted Vance Austin dead. But only his wife Eleanor was with his corpse when the police arrived. She was the one who called the police and told them she thought she’d stabbed him. To Peter McFadden, a Washington, D.C. Homicide detective, it looks like a straight-up domestic killing. Until the FBI strong-arms its way into the case, the forensics reports reveal the blood of an unidentified person on the scene, and the dead man’s neighbor tells McFadden she saw two men go into the home right around the time of the killing and leave before the police arrived. D.C. defense attorney Mercy Johnson agrees to defend Eleanor against a charge of first-degree murder. As she tries to reconcile the evidence against Eleanor with the contradictory scientific trail, she finds an ally in McFadden. Together they work to expose a network of enemies with motive and means to eliminate Vance Austin. In the course of unraveling these threads, Mercy learns that Eleanor has a secret. One that plunges Mercy into despair and could derail her close-knit family. Will the grace that leads Mercy out of her own despair be enough to save her client?

422 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2017

About the author

Biographical Information
Author Reita Pendry overcame years of paralyzing stage fright to become a criminal defense attorney. Over the course of a thirty-plus year career, she tried many cases to juries in Washington, DC and North Carolina. Her legal experience and her passion for justice animate her Mercy Johnson legal mystery series and this new series with Cassandra Robbins as the protagonist.
Robbins is a criminal defense attorney and a recovering alcoholic. Although the author is not herself an alcoholic or addict, she draws on the painful struggles of beloved family members to craft this new series. Courage, inspiration and hope are the bedrock qualities of Cassandra’s journey.
Like Cassandra, the author is accompanied on her journey by family, colleagues and friends, and a house full of rescue animals.