4.5 stars

I had to have a wry smile to the reference to the Central Park Five within the pages of "Your House Will Pay" as before the hype began building for this novel Cha was known to me primarily through the Twitter fallout following the award of Grand Master/Lifetime achievement (I can't remember which) to Linda Fairstein, who before coming to crime/legal fiction was part of the prosecution team against the five. If it informed one thing about her as a novelist, it is that she wouldn't be pulling her punches.

I went into this one relatively cold as I am wont to do with my reading and I'm really not sure how much to say about the plot. What I can say is that it starts out slowly with Cha building up the principal cast and where they are in their lives before pouncing with the crux of the plot that resonates emotionally throughout the rest of the book.

Cha's strength in character writing shines through as despite the events of the novel she doesn't posit anybody as good or bad and she delves into the grey areas of what has happened asking questions not just of the justice system, but of humanity itself.

I'll look to read her earlier books in anticipation of her future work.