A new novel set to be released this spring from actress Viola Davis and best-selling author James Patterson will have Alabama at its center.
Davis, an Academy Award-winning performer who has appeared in films like “Doubt” and “Fences,” collaborated with Patterson to write “Judge Stone,” a legal thriller set in the real town of Union Springs, Alabama.
“Judge Stone” follows Judge Mary Stone who draws “the most controversial case in the history of the South.”
“Criminally, it’s open-and-shut. “Ethically, there is no middle ground. Essentially, it’s a choice between life and death,” a summary of the book stated. “No judge can satisfy everyone. It would be dangerous to try. But Judge Stone is willing to fight to bring justice to the people and place she loves.”
While the book summary provided by the publisher does not explicitly name what the case is about, Emma Saunders of the BBC spelled it out better.
“It follows the case of a doctor who is arrested after carrying out an abortion on a 13-year-old girl in Alabama, a state where nearly all abortions are outlawed,” Saunders wrote in a piece listing some of the most anticipated books of 2026.
“Judge Stone” marks Davis’ first foray as a novelist. In 2022, she published her memoir, “Finding Me.”
The books, which will be published through Little, Brown and Company, will be released March 9.
