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Brian Hammett's girlfriend has been murdered.
Amanda, her little brother, and her mother were shot in their garage while Brian was shooting hoops in his driveway. Now her father has been arrested for the murder. Could a father really murder his family? Or was the shooter someone else? Brian thinks he remembered seeing a stranger the day Amanda was shot, but he was in the zone straining to make the perfect shot. Anyway, his father told him it probably wasn't anything important and he shouldn't get involved.
Heartbroken over Amanda's death, Brian has tried to lose himself in playing basketball. His school may only play Class 4 ball because their Indiana school is too small to compete with the bigger schools, but his team is the best with him calling the shots and his best friend, Julius, as the star scorer. As the season nears the championship, however, Amanda's father's trial nears its verdict.
And Brian's friend Julius finds himself in trouble when he gets lost in the unfamiliar city driving home, and is arrested for the crime of "driving while black" in a white neighborhood. Badly treated by the police, he calls Brian for help - but Brian's father still doesn't want to get involved, so Brian turns to his history partner's older brother, who's a lawyer, to get Julius out of jail.
Were the police right to arrest Julius? Is the prosecutor right to try Amanda's father? Is the justice system working, or is it broken? When Brian decides to speak out about the stranger, he finds that no one wants to hear him. The only person listening is the real murderer - who is determined to silence Brian by whatever means necessary.
I lived in Indiana for 20 years, and my husband works as a forensic expert witness in firearms related cases, often murder conviction appeals. I saw first hand how the justice system operaties - and how often it falls short. It only works if people are willing to get involved, and speak out, and even then they must be willing to put themselves under scrutiny by law enforcement officers and the courts if they are speaking out on the side of the defendant. Standing up for what is right is risky and can be dangerous, but I believe that is the only way to get justice out of the judicial system in our country.
Click here to read an excerpt from The Perfect Shot.
An Accelerated Reader Title
VOYA Top Shelf Fiction Selection - 2005 Bank Street College Teen List Selection - 2006 New York Public Library Teen Age List - 2006 2006 ForeWard Book of the Year Gold Medal Winner
Young Adult Fiction