Willa Carson is a federal judge (Democrat) in Tampa Bay. She has a couple of labs, a husband (Republican) with a gourmet restaurant, a penchant for cigars, and an impulse to correct injustices. Thus is she led into the fight to free a woman who’s been in prison for murdering her husband.

Tampa Bay’s a small town, so many of the principles know each other. The victim was the leader of a rock band whose members have become prominent citizens. A good situation for an amusing, if slight, romp through the Woodstock era cum twenty-first century respectability. The main virtue of Diane Capri’s Wasted Justice is that it pretends to be no more than it is–a lightweight entertainment with a satisfying ending.