[Alex Sedaka 02] • No Way Out

When 19 year old Bethel Newton accuses Elias Claymore of raping her, America is deeply divided on the issue in David Kessler's new thriller [No Way Out](http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1847561837?ie=UTF8&tag=davidkesslera-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1847561837). In his youth, Claymore was a Black power militant, as well as a convicted rapist and escaped convict. But after undergoing a Pauline conversion, he came back to America as a born again Christian to serve out his sentence and reinvented himself as a respectable, neoconservative TV talkshow host.

In the face of the new serious charge, Claymore turns to his friend Alex Sedaka for help. Alex is persuaded to share the defence with a law firm appointed by Claymore's insurers and finds himself working with Andromeda ("Andi") Phoenix, whose lesbian lover Gene works at a rape crisis centre.

But when Andi makes an issue of the under-representation of African-Americans on the jury, she starts receiving anonymous threats. Meanwhile Alex finds holes in the prosecution case but hits a major obstacle when he comes up against the DNA evidence.

Over the course of the trial, Alex must battle his way through jury tampering and a malicious computer hacker to find out who is telling the truth. And while all this is going on, Alex's on-ex-girlfriend, TV reporter Martine Yin, is covering the case. But is she getting too close and putting herself in danger?