A Strange and Bitter Crop — E.L. Wyrick

Tammi Randall has learned early in her career in a small Georgia town that the Job of Legal Aid attorney is not always straightforward. That was brought out when she earned the hatred of a gang of brutal thugs whose jailing she was responsible for. Her immediate frustration, however, is the seemingly impossible defense of a black teenager.
The town of Patsboro is shocked when Dr. Gary Reeves and his wife are found murdered in their antebellum home. Everything points to James Cleveland, who admits to being at the scene and owning the murder weapon.
Tammi Randall assumes a plea bargain is the best she can do for the youth, but she doggedly investigates with the help of her friends Dan, a school counselor, and Mitch, a super-salesman, successful businessman, and talented mimic, and discovers that her old nemesis, Buddy Crowe, may be involved. Buddy is the only at-large member of the gang Tammi and her friends broke up, and he has a personal vendetta against the attorney. Now the life not only of her teenage client but of the young lawyer herself is at stake.
Dan, Mitch, and Tammi's mother's good-ole-boy boyfriend are only a few of the diverse characters who populate this southern town and, with Tammi herself, bring to life this suspenseful, dramatic story.