Liza Brown takes on two separate and heartbreaking cases in this second instalment of this intriguing and well-crafted series.

Liza is assigned a case involving Dexter Diaz, who was wrongfully convicted of murder when he was fourteen years old after his brutally long interrogation by police.

LizA then receives a letter from an incarcerated man, Moses King, who says he was convicted on the word of a woman who had been left blind by an attack. Claudette Cooper could not identify her attacker, until she saw him in a dream. She identified her attacker as Moses, her neighbour. Moses was then arrested and wrongfully convicted.

Moses contacted Liza because he knew her father. Liza knew Moses' case didn't fall under the purview of the non-profit organization she works for, but she still brings the information to Eli Stone.

Eli, meanwhile, is spiralling ever downwards, agonizing over his feelings for Antoinette, his deceased wife, struggling to manage the Roz nightclub, and keep hold of his fraying sanity. He is, however, continuing with his desire to expose corrupt cops threatening Denver’s black residents, and watches cops robbing and committing thefts. Eli becomes only more driven after his nephew is beaten by cops.

Liza and Eli are fascinating characters, and both have a strong sense of justice. I was horrified by the abuses perpetrated by the Denver police force during this period in the narrative, and only more horrified to learn that this was based on real life officers’ conduct. In fact, each of the cases in this compelling novel are based on real cases, which only drives home the dangers of unexamined power structures and the people in them, and how problems are exacerbated when bigotry is a factor.

I was on the edge of my seat, figuratively, wondering how each situation would resolve. The wrap up of this book was wonderful; there is a sense of hope and light, particularly with the way the two main characters find new purpose, and the way Eli begins opening his heart up again. I loved the way The Roz was redeployed as a beacon of hope, love, justice and great music and community.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Crooked Lane Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

A powerful and gripping novel that explores wrongful convictions. The writing is striking and thought provoking, capturing the emotional turmoil that Liza experiences. I was on the edge of my seat as Liza uncovered the truth behind her clients convictions.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A Dream in the Dark is the second book in the A Wrongful Conviction series by Robert Justice. While this book could be a standalone, I would recommend reading the first book (They Can’t Take Your Name) before reading this one.

Similar to the first book in the series, I was immediately drawn into the world Justice created. His ability to create characters, a setting, and a plot that beautifully captures the emotions associated with systemic injustice and racism is nothing short of amazing. It felt like I was literally witnessing the events in the book as a bystander. Reading this book made me equal parts infuriated, hopeful, and kept me on the edge of my seat. The fact that Justice is involved in work around wrongful convictions adds another layer to his books. His voice is a much needed one in the crime fiction genre, and I’m thankful I got to experience it twice. Here’s to hoping more books are on the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the advanced reader copy of the book.

After losing his wife and opening the Jazz club that he and his wife had dreamed about Eli still is struggling with the loss. He has the potential for a relationship with attorney Liza Brown whose singing voice is like velvet and moonlights as a waitress and singer when she isn't trying to set innocent people free from prison. 

Liza has joined an innocence project and is only allowed to take cases that are urgent, where someone is facing death or is in immediate danger. She is tasked with helping a young hispanic male who is accused of killing his teacher, but she also stumbles across a request from someone who knew her father and was told she could help.  Torn between what she is supposed to do and what she feels driven to do leaves her struggling between two cases. 

Eli through his drunken haze has said he would help but he has disappeared on his own mission to discover what's going on in the neighborhood. People are being robbed, beaten and harassed and word on the street is that it's the police. 

This is the 2nd book in the series. The first focuses on Liza trying to help save her father who was innocent from being put to death but her time is running out. 

I love these books for the characters, the history, and the wisdom imparted in each volume. It also doesn't hurt that the author actually donates a portion of the proceeds to help different innocence projects around the US. The stories are well told and exciting with a lot going on and a sense of urgency. The budding love story between Eli and Liza is great and I love that he shows that grief isn't something so easily gotten over and that it takes time. 

A cross between a legal thriller and a mystery this is a fantastic book that is really enlightening.  In fact the two cases that Liza works on in the book really did happen.  I'm looking forward to the next one. Keep fighting and opening people's eyes to what is happening in the legal system @robert4justice fantastic book.

Read it twice bc there were a couple of scenes I just needed to take in, especially after hearing the author give background on a few of the backstories. I'm hoping this is a series because I would be ALL. IN. Robert is a skilled author and I have to say I haven't read a legal thriller series focused on wrongful convictions so I am hopeful for more books along this plot line.
This is well-written, emotional, also hopeful. We don't always get the happy ending we want but we. get an ending we can make work. I listened to the audio format of this book and have to say I think this book would be more served with a bold, strong action voice. Something about JD Jackson's voice has waned my affection over the years. It was fine, but in the back of my mind I was wishing for like...a. Ron Butler timbre. Anyway, well done Robert!

4.5 stars. This was a gripping, informative book focusing on injustices and corruption in the justice system and criminal acts within the police force. This led to people being wrongfully charged and imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. It also describes a minority of police beating and arresting visible minorities and committing robberies.

Wrongful convictions inspired a Dream in the Dark. Liza Brown, a black woman, was a singer, but when her father was unjustly imprisoned and sentenced to death, she became a lawyer. She volunteered at Project Joseph, an organization aiming to exonerate those wrongfully imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. Liza was unable to overturn his conviction, and her father was executed, leading to a sense of hopelessness and failure. The small number of staff at Project Joseph can only select a few cases of innocents languishing in prison.

Liza is assigned to the case of a young man, Dexter, who was forced to give a false confession to murder at the age of fourteen. When interviewed, she finds him vile and rude, resulting in his anger and hopelessness for his years among hardened convicts. Liza has another case prominently on her mind, that of Moses King. He is midway through a life sentence and writes to her that he was a friend of her beloved father, who suggested he contact her in an attempt to gain his freedom.

Another man has confessed to the murder for which Moses was charged. A woman was found viciously beaten and blinded from the attack. She said it was initially too dark to identify the person who beat her, and then he blinded her. She told of a dream about Moses being her assailant, and the police stopped looking for the actual criminal once Moses was charged.

Liza gets a lot of support from Eli, a man renovating the jazz club where she sang. They have close friendship, respect, and unacknowledged romantic feelings. He has been depressed for five years since the death of his wife. Eli's nephew, Tyrone, a sax player in the club, is savagely beaten by members of the police. Eli disguises himself as a homeless man. He lives in the streets, hoping to catch the criminal element in the police force and bring them to justice. He lost interest in his jazz club, where he hoped to draw Black clients from the suburbs to the area that many once called home. A new club owned by a White man is catering to rap and hip-hop fans and is drawing Eli's customers away.

A parade during Martin Luther King Day, amid racial tensions, erupts into danger and destructiveness. Peaceful Black protesters and those clamouring for active change are confronted by the KKK and skinheads representing White power. The police stand idly by.

Liza needs evidence from her two cases and DNA samples to prove her clients innocent, but finds most of the samples have been thrown out. Can her investigations free her two innocent clients from prison? Will Eli be able to prove there is a criminal gang within the police force stealing and brutally beating Black people for the deranged thrill of it? Will justice be served?
Dexter and Moses were based on actual prisoners, as were the police criminal acts, the parade, and other historical events. The story is heart-wrenching and compelling.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an early electronic copy of this book, which was much appreciated. It will be published on July 23.

A Dream in the Dark by Robert Justice is a wonderfully written story.
It’s very thought provoking and really infuriating.
A compelling crime novel that was extremely hard to pull away from.

Thank You NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Hello Readers!

I hope you enjoy A DREAM IN THE DARK, the sequel to my debut novel THEY CAN'T TAKE YOUR NAME.

A DREAM IN THE DARK is a crime novel about Moses King, an innocent man convicted because the victim, Claudette Cooper, had a dream that he was the perpetrator—her dream is now his nightmare.
Their fate is in the hands of Liza Brown, a woman determined to rescue others from a justice system that failed her father, and Eli Stone, an angry, grieving man.

In my first novel I explored what happens to our dreams deferred. In A DREAM IN THE DARK, we explore what happens when those dreams become our nightmares.

My Wrongful Conviction Series is set in Denver and inspired Black history & literature and the the desire to right wrongful convictions

I believe that together we can right wrongful convictions which is why I started the Read a Book, Right a Wrong campaign. The majority my advance goes to support local innocence projects so if you've read either of my books then YOU'VE ALREADY MADE A DIFFERENCE!

Robert Justice
X & IG: @Robert4Justice

Robert Justice writes, to right wrongful convictions. He is a man and author that I would love to meet. I was introduced to Justice when I read You Can’t Take My Name. This book was so powerful that I began following the author so that I wouldn’t miss his next book.

I received his second book in the series, A Dream In The Dark. It will be out July 23, 2024. I suggest you read the first book in the series first, that way you will appreciate this one way more.

My favorite character in the book was Moses King . He was actually convicted on a dream that Claudette Cooper had. She was the victim of a perpetrator that blinded her. “Ever since that day, her dream has been my nightmare.” Moses King wrote these words in a letter hoping the innocence project would take his case and help free him since he did not commit the crime. His story is real. This actually happened. Being convicted of a crime you didn’t commit, especially due to police corruption has to be one of the most horrific things a person can live through. To hear the words guilty, when your not is terrifying.

While I had a little bit of a hard time getting into this book and almost stopped 1/3 of the way in I did continue and am glad I did. The topic is very important especially in our world today with so many minority groups being treated horrendously. We must all stand up for each other.

Robert Justice thank you for opening up my eyes and continuing to write about wrongful convictions and the Innocence Projects happening across our country. Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am not American born and I do not live in the US at the moment and I'm always shocked to read (and see) racial prejudice pervading american society and history. I've been to Denver, and loved the city, and I was there in 94, so just a few years after some of the stories mentioned in A Dream In The Dark had happened. What also always amazes me is the capacity of the US law system to revisit the past and bring wrongdoings to light and make the correct culprits pay, that does not happen everywhere, and certainly does not happen where I live (we also have racial and other sorts of prejudice and I would never deny their existence). A Dream in the Dark fictionalizes real life and adds romance and mystery and action to several vivid moments in the city of Denver existence. It's well-written and a portrait of a time.
I thank the author, his publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Liza loves to sing. She changed her life direction when her father Langston Brown was convicted and sentenced to death row for a crime he did not commit. She qualifies in Law to help her father. She becomes the Assistant Director of Project Joseph in Denver.
Eli is grieving the death of his wife. Five years on it is no easier for him. Liza sings at his place a couple of nights a week.
I loved the pace of the story and although it is fiction it relates to some real events. I was hooked from start to finish.

Thank you so much to Crooked Lane Books @CrookedLaneBooks and Netgalley @Netgalley for this e-arc. All thoughts are my own.




Liza has firsthand knowledge of how the justice system has failed, it’s why she became a lawyer. Now she works at a nonprofit to free those who have been wrongfully imprisoned. When Moses King reaches out to her, Liza goes to work to prove his innocence. She recruits Eli to help, but Eli is dealing with some demons and not able to fully commit to the case.

Frustrated, Liza turns to Moses’s accuser, who was never able to identify him clearly. But she is hiding some dark secrets, and not keen on them being exposed. Can Liza clear Moses’s name when the deck is stacked against him?




Books that are based on, even loosely, fact, just hit me a little harder than pure fiction, and this was one of those books. I did struggle to get into this one and almost DNF’d it a few times, but I ended up being glad I didn’t. Things picked up towards the middle of the book, and by then I was too invested to put it down. I just needed to know how things resolved, and the struggle ended up being worth it. I enjoyed learning about Liz, and while I didn’t always like her, I respected her and loved reading about her choices.

This book would be great for a book club because it opens the door to great social issue discussion. I could imagine having some great discussion after reading this one. I also loved hearing that the author gives a portion of all his proceeds to subgroups of the Innocence Project. That alone makes me a reader for life as I love hearing and learning about ways people give back.

I liked this book for the views and perspectives. In 1992, Claudette was attacked and blinded in her apartment. Moses King was charged with the crime. Now years later, he writes to Lawyer Liza Brown to convince her he never did it.

I liked this book to show how messed up the justice system is. Not just for people of color, but women and underprivileged and many other groups. It’s frustrating. I’m so thankfully at least science has come farther to prove crimes.

Liza Brown is young black Lawyer and she is working at Project Joseph based in Denver. It has been initiated to get people justice. Liza lost her father Langston Brown, he was falsely convicted and sentence to death. She tried every possible thing but she couldn’t clear his name because of corrupted legal system. He is not the only one, people are getting wrongly convicted of crimes. She gave up singing to become a lawyer, now she receives a letter from a man who was wrongfully convicted on the basis of a dream and the only evidence is their neighbour’s testimony. While Dexter was convicted of murder but no one represented him before Liza. She did justice with his case but she is still fighting for Moses King. Some characters were real as it has been mentioned in the Author’s note while some were fictional. I deeply felt for each of them. Eli is such an heartwarming person, I was kind of hoping a different ending. But reading about Liza’s father and Antoinette brought tears in my eyes. The author did a great job by writing this book. This is a must read.

Many Thanks to Author, Publisher and Netgalley.

This story is a portrait of social discrepancies and historically deep divides between neighborhoods in Denver. I read the debut novel from Mr. Justice and was pleased to see a second. This could be read on it’s own, I thought the first was thought provoking. Texans are known for fleeing to Colorado when our summers become unbearable. As a child I spent many vacations in the Denver area and had no knowledge of the darker side, some of the history referenced and how far back it goes. The theme addresses social inequity with fictional characters Liza and Eli.
Liza became an attorney to free her father from a wrongful conviction. Although she’s good at it, it wouldn’t have been her career choice. She has an incredible voice and still sings sometimes at Eli’s jazz club, a historical old building called the Roz. Eli is the widower whose dream was to reopen the club with the love of his life. Even after years, he’s still consumed by debilitating grief and despair, unable to move forward from the loss of his wife. The plot centers on Liza’s determination to free an imprisoned man she’s certain is innocent. The legal aspects of the case are fascinating.There is darkness and grief as both Eli and Liza struggle with their past failures, current police responses and moving forward with their lives. There are many relevant social issues worth further discussion. It left me with lots to think about.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing the digital advance reader copy of “A Dream in the Dark” by Robert Justice, publishers Crooked Lane Books, expected publication 07/23/2024. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

This was such a hard hitting book, especially knowing that it was based off true cases. It follows Liza, a young Black lawyer and single mother who works at Project Joseph, an innocence project based in Denver, CO in the 1990s. She originally got her law degree to help her father, who was on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, she is working non stop to exonerate two men also wrongly convicted, one of whom was convicted solely on a dream the victim had.

The character of Liza really is an incredible person, she is passionate, smart, hardworking, and determined. There is nothing she won’t do to make sure that people who are wrongly accused of a crime are not executed or have to spend their entire life in prison.

A Dream in the Dark is such an inspiring and infuriating book about the injustice of the justice system and the deep-rooted racism within it. It made me want to throw the book at the wall at times, knowing how difficult it was for Liza and other members of the Black community to get justice. This book made me feel all the emotions and I loved it even more when I found out that for every copy sold, the author donates a portion to subgroups of the Innocence Project.

A very powerful novel about police corruption in the black society.
Liza a black woman who leaves her dream to pursue a future to help her dad show his innocence. Unfortunately she was not able to save her dad but has the chance to continue and help out more people who are convicted of crimes that they are wrongly accused. With the help of Eli a good friend they uncover the real truth of these convictions. And to prove that the police are corrupt and targeting the black community.
I highly recommend this to anyone who believes that the justice system is flawed. But there is some good people in the world who are willing to help show the truth and prove that people in power sometimes use this to their own advantage. At first it was a bit hard to get into but I pushed thru and I’m so glad I did. It turned out it was hard to put down and I highly recommend reading it.
Based on true events

First of all, thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this book based on its description, but I found it very difficult to get into. I had to keep re-reading paragraphs because I lost my focus while reading. Overall, I'm glad I stuck with it because the last half of the book definitely picks up and keeps the reader invested, but the first half almost lost me.

It took me a little bit to get into this book , but man oh man am I sure glad I kept going.

This was so eye opening, and thought provoking. I absolutely love the story line and premise behind this book.