-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:A thrillingly suspenseful debut novel, and a fierce howl of rage that questions the true meaning of justice.
Rafael Zhettah relishes the simplicity and freedom of his life. He is the owner and head chef of a promising Houston restaurant. A pilot with open access to the boundless Texas horizon. A bachelor, content with having few personal or material attachments that ground him. Then, lightning strikes. When he finds Tieresse - billionaire, philanthropist, sophisticate, bombshell - sitting at one of his tables, he also finds his soul mate and his life starts again. And just as fast, when she is brutally murdered in their home, when he is convicted of the crime, when he is sentenced to die, it is all ripped away. But for Rafael Zhettah, death row is not the end. It is only the beginning. Now, with his recaptured freedom, he will stop at nothing to deliver justice to those who stole everything from him.
This is a heart-stoppingly suspenseful, devastating, page-turning debut novel. A thriller with a relentless grip that wants you to read it in one sitting. David R. Dow has dedicated his life to the fight against capital punishment - to righting the horrific injustices of the death penalty regime in Texas. He delivers the perfect modern parable for exploring our complex, uneasy relationships with punishment and reparation in a terribly unjust world.
It is circumstances that carry the wave that sweeps trendy Houston restaurateur Rafael Zhettah to death row in David R. Dow’s taut roller coaster of a thriller. The fact that Dow is a lawyer who has worked with more than a hundred death row clients imbues intimate authenticity into this debut, giving it a spark of life, and even a punch of gallows humor...continued
Full Review
(563 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Donna Chavez).
In David R. Dow's thriller, Confessions of an Innocent Man, the protagonist is sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. Since the murder is committed in Texas, one of the 30 U.S. states that still allows capital punishment, he is sent directly to death row. There he awaits his execution among the 200+ other residents. From 1976 to December 2018, some 550 prisoners have been executed in Texas alone. (In 1972, in the ruling of Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional, but this was negated by the 1976 ruling of Gregg v. Georgia, and states gradually began reincorporating the death penalty into their legal systems in the following years.)
The total number of executions nationwide has ebbed as ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked Confessions of an Innocent Man, try these:
by Jim McCloskey, Philip Lerman
Published 2021
By the founder of the first organization in the United States committed to freeing the wrongly imprisoned, a riveting story of devotion, sacrifice, and vindication.
by Albert Woodfox
Published 2019
Winner of the 2019 BookBrowse Debut Author Award
A chronicle of rare power and humanity that proves the better spirits of our nature can thrive against any odds.
John Grisham, New York Times bestselling author of The Reckoning
Every person wrongfully convicted of a crime at some point dreams of getting revenge against the system...As I zipped through the pages, I kept thinking, 'This book is too thin. I want more.'
.gif)