The Juror Hangs by Catherine Mambretti

If it had been 1952 instead of 2011, the verdict in Casey Anthony's trial would have been "The Juror Hangs." It's always the jurors who suffer most from a verdict. Set in 1952 Chicago, Catherine Mambretti's THE JUROR HANGS, features librarian Miss T. Iris Ginge, a young woman who would rather look things up than hunt down a killer. Iris is very reasonable. So, when she has reasonable doubts of a socialite's guilt in the murder of a wealthy Cuban retiree, Iris becomes the lone holdout juror against 11 men on the jury. The jury hangs: it's no-justice-as-usual in Chicago's Cook County Criminal Courthouse. After the trial the killer's still "out there" --out to get Iris. Her only ally is a P.I. wannabe named Calamity McClurg, a meter-maid who seems to know a little bit too much about both Iris and the dead man.