Hi there, I'm Melissa Adwarnie, and this is NPR's book of the day. Today's book is a legal

thriller that you will not be able to put down. A black ex-police officer is shot 10 times by

white officers in Chicago. The book's hero, attorney Bo Lee Cooper, must find out what actually

happened in order to seek

justice. The novel is called Worse Than a Lie, written by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. He was

inspired by real-life cases he's worked on, and he spoke with NPR's Aisha Roscoe.

In his debut novel, the civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump imagines a horrific crime that feels all too real.

A black man named Hollis Montrose gets stopped by white police officers while driving in Chicago.

The man compliantly answers the officer's questions, but suddenly the officers yank him from his car,

kick him in the ribs, then they shoot him ten times.

It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. How could so much be taken from him without provocation,

as if his life held no meaning, inconsequential, like that of an insect, caught in a gale,

whipped and thrashed until splattering on a car's windshield.

Ben Crump's new book is called Worse Than a Lie. It follows a winding perilous path to justice for Hollis Montrose.

Ben Crump joins me now. Good morning. Good morning, Queen. Well, thank you very much.

Hollis Montrose is an older black man who is a respected former police officer and he has a loving wife and family,

but he becomes the victim of police brutality himself.

What were you trying to illustrate through this characterization?

Certainly, Aisha, this situation, Hollis Montrose, this black police officer, you can't

find a better citizen. And that was intentional because I know oftentimes when you have

cases of police brutality, they try to assassinate the victim's character, Breonna Taylor, Ahmad, Aubrey, George, Florida,

and the list goes on and on. But I wanted to have a character who was a good person through and

...