Trell

 Lehr, Dick. Trell. 320p. ISBN 9780763692759.

Trell has never gotten the chance to be tucked in bed by Romero Taylor, her father. He's missed all of her school events. He's only seen her once a week for a few hours, but it's not his fault. He's in prison, for the murder of a twelve-year-old girl named Ruby Graham who was shot and killed in 1988 by a stray bullet while sitting on a mailbox in Roxbury, a Boston neighborhood. For fourteen years, Trell has been raised by her no-nonsense mother Shey, who has looked after her and who has taken her to visit her father in prison every weekend.

He's always claimed his innocence, but Trell has never really cared about that until she meets Nora Walsh, a pugnacious defense lawyer who agrees to look into Romero's case. What she finds disturbs her. Following the death of Ruby, the police was under extreme pressure to find a killer quickly. Corners were cut, investigations were sloppy, his legal representation was awful, and Romero ended up convicted. 

Even with a heavy school load, Trell finds time to volunteer with Nora and help her build a case, but upon the dismissal of Romero's appeal for a retrial, Trell decides it's time to bring in a reporter to help investigate their case. She contacts Clemens Bittner, and despite several refusals, tenaciously pursues him until he agrees to take a look at the case. What he finds bothers him enough to join Trell and Nora and look at the circumstances that led Romero to prison. 

As the investigation progresses, Trell becomes convinced her father didn't do it. And if he was committed for a crime he didn't commit, then someone else out there killed Ruby Graham, and likely won't appreciate people looking again into that case. Threading a dangerous needle, Trell pursues her investigation, knowing that her life becomes more and more in danger the closer she gets to the truth!