When the body of eleven-year-old Thuy Sen is found in San Francisco Bay, the police swiftly charge Rennell and Payton Price with her grisly murder. A twelve-person jury, helped along by an incompetent lawyer for the defense, are quick to find the brothers guilty - and to sentence them both to die for their crimes.

Twelve years later, Payton is days from his execution, and overworked pro bono lawyer Teresa Peralta Paget, her husband Chris, and stepson Carlo, a recent Harvard law graduate, become convinced not only that Rennell didn't receive a fair trial, but that he's innocent. Racing against the clock and against insurmountable legal obstacles, Teresa, Chris, and Carlo desperately try and stop the execution of an innocent man.

Praise for BALANCE OF POWER

'Richard North Patterson has a keen eye for how Washington really works. His portrait of the gun lobby is right on - both in terms of its power and its political tactics. A must read for anyone interested in the gun debate'

Bill Clinton

`BALANCE OF POWER and PROTECT AND DEFEND stand as a remarkable project in popular fiction: an extension of the genre of the legal thriller to explore the morality and strategies of the US's greatest civic controversies'

Mark Lawson, The Guardian

'BALANCE OF POWER is a rip-roaring novel . . . a great read by a masterful writer'

Senator Edward Kennedy