#Titanuary ‘Two Lost Boys’ by L.F Roberston

About the book…

Janet Moodie has spent years as a death row appeals attorney. Overworked and recently widowed, she’s had her fill of hopeless cases and is determined that this will be her last. Her client is Marion ‘Andy’ Hardy, convicted along with his brother Emory of the rape and murder of two women. But Emory received a life sentence while Andy got the death penalty, labeled the ringleader despite his low IQ and Emory’s dominant personality.

Convinced that Andy’s previous lawyers missed mitigating evidence that would have kept him off death row, Janet investigates Andy’s past. She discovers a sordid and damaged upbringing, a series of errors on the part of his previous counsel, and most worrying of all, the possibility that there is far more to the murders than was first thought.

Andy may be guilty, but does he deserve to die?

The first in the Janet Moodie series from Titan Books, ‘Two Lost Boys’ was published in 2017 in e-book , paperback and audiobook formats.

The e-book is currently available on Kindle Unlimited for those who have memberships, so it is a great chance to try out a new author!

I loved this book so much, it is dark, moody, and shows another side to the consequences of a death penalty county. It also explores the life of attorney Janet Moodie, who has taken on this case, as she has other death row cases, as they tend to be paper based . This means that her hiding place, in Corbin’s Landing, remains just that. She can work from there and have minimal contact with the outside world following the sudden , and unexplainable death of her husband. Whilst she has retreated there, her son has left for Australia, a different kind of fleeing although both find that grief is not easily left behind them.

For the case of brothers , Marion (known as Andy, or Ron) and Emory Hardy, however, she is duped into what she thinks will be a straight forward appeal to look into why one of the brothers, and not both, was placed on death row.

A cursory glance into the case files left behind by the know deceased defender of Andy, shows that he never really stood a chance of having anything other than the death sentence thrown at him. There was evidence missed, incidents omitted and a obvious lack of character witnesses. This is supported when Janet meets him, he does not seem quite as intelligent as you would believe someone would need to be to kidnap 3 women, murder two of them and bury them in the family property whilst keeping that from their mother, and then drive off and let the third one go. Something does not add up.

Emory pleaded down to life in jail as he blames Andy for planning, executing and carrying out the plans, and is not inclined to change his point of view.

Their mother is a masterpiece on monstrosity, her main concern on her sons being arrested for these crimes was how she could afford to move from the property. She has not even provided Andy with a character statement.

Something very clearly does not add up, one brother has had a decent defence made for him but the other has been let down, it appears, from his family, society and the legal system at large.

But how will Janet begin to re-examine every single part of a case that is now 15 years cold?

This gripping and engaging legal thriller will look at how these two lost boys were wilfully left behind by all the societal systems which should have been in place to keep them safe.

However, does that mean one or either are actually guilty of the crimes they have been convicted of?

I would thoroughly recommend reading ‘Two Lost Boys’ to find out!

About the author…

L.F. Robertson is a practising defense attorney who for the last two decades has handled only death penalty appeals.

Linda is the co-author of ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Unsolved Murders’, and a contributor to the forensic handbooks How to Try a Murder and Irrefutable Evidence. She has had short stories published in the anthologies ‘My Sherlock Holmes’, ‘Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes: The American Years’.

Links-http://www.lfrobertson.net/

Article-https://crimereads.com/lost-years-on-death-row/

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