A true deliverance /

North Carolina lawyer/journalist Harwell reconstructs the notorious Joan Little case from her girlhood (""She's no angel"") and imprisonment for burglary through the discovery of jailer Alligood's semi-nude body and the pursuit, trial, and acquittal of Joan Little for his murder. These events have been told over before (more compellingly in James Reston, Jr.'s The Innocence of Joan Little) but Harwell focuses on the ""selling of Joan Little""--the unscrupulous defense manipulation of the media which overwhelmed the stolid, inept prosecution and the judicial process. Was Joan Little a ruthless killer who cleverly engineered her own escape from jail? Or was she a powerless black woman, brutally abused by a white jailer/rapist? Guilt or innocence was never decided, Harwell maintains, but his own narration of events (and new questions he raises, particularly about medical evidence) leaves scant doubt that, in his view, Little sold us all a bill of goods. The case, as Harwell sees it, neither raises nor resolves any significant public issues or concerns; it leaves ""a legacy not of benefits and accomplishments but of bitter memories, disappointments, and broken spirits."" Deflating the partisan rhetoric of earlier accounts, Harwell contributes to those disappointments without adding much to our understanding; but like any well-told saga of murder, detection, and trial, it is nonetheless an intensely readable story. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.