''While Justice Sleeps'' is a

legal thriller The legal thriller genre is a type of crime fiction genre that focuses on the proceedings of the Criminal investigation, investigation, with particular reference to the impacts on courtroom proceedings and the lives of characters. The genre came ...

novel authored by American politician and writer

Stacey Abrams Stacey Yvonne Abrams (; born December 9, 1973) is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member ...

, published on May 11, 2021.

Background

The book centers around a

law clerk A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...

for an

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a Justice (title), justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the J ...

. After the justice becomes gravely ill, the law clerk becomes his legal guardian. Abrams commented the inspiration for the book came from a conversation with her mother, in which her mother noted

Article Three of the United States Constitution Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. Under Article Three, the judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as lower courts created by Con ...

allows for a lifetime appointment for justices, but "has no failsafe for a person being physically unable to do the job."

Publication

The novel is the first one published with Abrams' name, as her previous novels have all been written under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Selena Montgomery. Immediately following its release, the book was the #1 on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for fiction novels.

Television adaptation

The novel is currently being produced as a television series by

Working Title Films Working Title Films Limited, formerly Visionensure Limited and Working Title Limited, is a British film and television production company that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The company was founded by ...

, a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

References

2021 American novels Doubleday (publisher) books Legal thriller novels Novels set in courtrooms Novels set in Washington, D.C. {{2020s-thriller-novel-stub