An innocent man, condemned to die.  Corrupt cops.  And a healthy dose of Florida color.
That’s a winning combination for Ray Dix in his debut novel, Death Row Defender (240 pages, Hard Shell Word Factory, $12.95). Dix, a native of Virginia’s Eastern Shore who now lives on Gwynn’s Island, spent years as a public defender in capital cases in Florida.  His knowledge of the subject informs this page-turner, and the reader suspects that protagonist Woody Thomas is more than a bit like his creator.
Ever since John Grisham stormed onto the scene, legal thrillers have proliferated like, well, lawyers.  But “Death Row Defender” is a cut above the average.