One of the hundred books a year I read:

Adrian Wall is paroled from prison, still proclaiming his innocence in a murder years earlier. A young boy, Gideon, confronts him the day of his release, pistol in hand and vowing revenge for the murder of his mother, but is shot and taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Detective Elizabeth Black knows them both. Adrian is a former police officer and she is one of the few who believes in his innocence. And she has long taken motherless Gideon under her wing, especially with his father drunk or absent most of the time.

But Elizabeth has her own problems. She is under investigation for a shooting. She claims self-defense, but the 18 bullets fired from her gun suggest revenge. Her sheltering of the rape victim, Channing, she rescued complicates the investigation. As does Elizabeth’s secretive past, estrangement from her parents (her father is a prominent minister), and run-ins with her boss.

To complicate matters, a body has been found displayed on Elizabeth’s abandoned childhood church’s altar and the warden continues his grudge against the freed Adrian.

A complex story carefully woven together by the brilliant prose of the author.