I wrote this initial scene in 2008, then I put the book aside because I was involved in trying to save the Democratic Party in Georgia. And I thought, Oh my God, what if a Supreme Court justice was in a coma and you didn’t know whether they would ever emerge? So I thought about it and sat with the idea, and on the way home I was listening to some story about someone in a persistent vegetative state. She mentioned this question she had about what would happen if a Supreme Court justice could no longer do their job, because Article III of the Constitution is silent on it. I was having lunch with a partner at the law firm where I used to work. SA: I actually started writing it years ago. So it leaves me with the big question: How the heck did you have time to write such a complex and accomplished book? MC: is very much of this moment, with contemporary thoughts about what’s going on in our world and where our world is going. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play

My mission is going to be for us to be on a plane together again and have a rousing conversation! Stacey Abrams: I’m so sorry I didn’t know that you were sitting near me, and hopefully you saw that I was happy to talk to anybody who reached out. Now here we are together, and it’s a real honor for me to say, first of all, thank you for everything you’ve done for our world, our society, our country. After, I thought, Man, I missed my chance to say something to Stacey Abrams. And I spent the whole flight, four or five hours, thinking, I want to say something to her, to thank her, but I just didn’t want to screw it up. Maybe two years ago, I was on a plane and you were sitting across the aisle from me. Michael Connelly: Thank you so much for doing this. Abrams hopped on Zoom with veteran thriller writer Michael Connelly, author of The Lincoln Lawyer and the Harry Bosch series, to talk shop.

Now she’s back to Stacey Abrams, with While Justice Sleeps, which is both her first novel written under her real name and her first legal thriller. She’s a master of fiction, with eight romance and suspense novels written under the name Selena Montgomery. Stacey Abrams, who solidified herself this past election season as one of the most powerful women in American politics, has another job: She’s a writer.

While justice sleeps author