When belief becomes procedure, who decides what's true?
In Good Faith Exception, a single closed case exposes how justice survives-not by being right, but by being documented correctly.
Mara Ellison works inside the system that reviews police use-of-force incidents. Her job isn't to decide guilt or innocence. It's to decide whether belief was recorded in time. When three on-page deaths unfold across a routine investigation, each ruled lawful under the doctrine of good faith, Mara begins to notice something unsettling.
Belief isn't just being evaluated.
It's being engineered.
As language standardizes, timestamps tighten, and decision-support tools quietly guide what officers are supposed to "believe," accountability shifts upstream-away from people and into process. No officers are charged. No doctrine is overturned. Instead, the system adapts, absorbing scrutiny by refining itself.
This is not a story about corruption or conspiracy.
It's a story about compliance, optimization, and the danger of certainty.
Told in a restrained, procedural voice, Good Faith Exception is a grounded legal thriller where tension comes not from spectacle, but from timing-seconds that decide outcomes, language that protects power, and the question no system wants to answer:
Who speaks first-the officer, or the machine?
Perfect for readers who want smart, unsettling thrillers about institutions, accountability, and the thin line between lawful and just.
The case closes.
The system survives.
The exception remains.
