A sophisticated legal thriller that plunges readers into the debate within the US government surrounding the imprisonment of thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
When the news broke about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Caswell “Cash” Harrison was all set to drop out of law school and join the army… until he flunked the physical. Instead, he’s given the opportunity to serve as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He and another clerk stumble onto a potentially huge conspiracy aimed at guiding the court’s interests, and the cases dealing with the constitutionality of the prison camps created to detain Japanese-Americans seem to play a key part. Then Cash’s colleague dies under mysterious circumstances, and the young, idealistic lawyer is determined to get at the truth. His investigation will take him from the office of J. Edgar Hoover to an internment camp in California, where he directly confronts the consequences of America’s wartime policies. Kermit Roosevelt combines the momentum of a top-notch legal thriller with a thoughtful examination of one of the worst civil rights violations in US history in this long-awaited follow-up to In the Shadow of the Law.
"This sophisticated, multi-textured novel works both as a thriller to rival the best of Stephen Carter and as an insightful look at one of America's darkest historical moments... The plot twists are both genuinely surprising and logical, and Roosevelt is subtle in illustrating how the liberty vs. security tensions of the 1940s foreshadow those of the post-9/11 era."
“Deftly written and carefully observed, Allegiance is an ingenious blend of history and imagination. Roosevelt’s novel vividly portrays a pivotal time in America’s past, luring the reader through a clever plot in which the very fate of the nation’s honor is at stake.”
“The perfect melding of the times of a young man and the times of a young country, as both struggle to delineate the parameters of justice during war... No one else but the immensely talented Kermit Roosevelt could have written Allegiance, and I cannot recommend it more highly.”
“A riveting tale of murder and conspiracy within the highest echelons of government in WW II Washington, D.C.”
