Second Judgment

A Vigilante Justice Thriller

Justice failed Lily Alcott.

The report said accidental drowning. The photos said otherwise. And for Erika Tsai—New York medical examiner and daughter of a woman the system already buried once—those details were enough.

Erika doesn’t rage. She doesn’t plead. She documents. And when the evidence points to men untouchable by courts or prosecutors, she becomes something far more dangerous than a vigilante: precise.

As bodies begin to fall, FBI Special Agent Kate Harding is assigned to the case. What she finds isn’t chaos, but pattern. The killings are disciplined. Clean. Intentional. Each one exposes a buried crime the system chose not to prosecute. Following the trail forces Harding to confront a question her badge never prepared her for: what happens when justice works better outside the law than within it?

As the investigation tightens, alliances fracture, and the line between hunter and hunted collapses. Erika must decide how far she’s willing to go—and Harding must decide whether stopping her will protect the law… or preserve a lie.

Second Judgment is a sharp, morally charged thriller about power, complicity, and the cost of correcting a broken system—where every answer carries consequences, and the final choice leaves no one untouched.

With its forensic precision and moral tension, Second Judgment is perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and Karin Slaughter.