The author of While Justice Sleeps, Abrams is a US politician and lawyer with a background in tax law. A Democrat, Abrams served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. While Justice Sleeps critiques the corrupt nature of American politics and its manifestations in the interplay between politics and businesses as well as between politics and the media. The author’s experience in Washington, DC, politics and her firsthand knowledge of the criminal-justice system is apparent in her work, which makes the content of the book more troubling, leaving the reader to wonder what may be rooted in fact versus what is fiction.

Abrams’s work as a lawyer is also useful in helping to elucidate the intricacies of the judicial system for the reader throughout the book. For example, there are details regarding appeals processes and Supreme Court terms that laymen may not know. Abrams is careful to explicate these details in the work through various techniques, such as conversations between characters and portrayals of media reports.

The driving plot point in While Justice Sleeps has direct roots to real-world socio-political/national/geographic tensions. The book’s action revolves around a shocking point of corruption: The US president approved illegal government funding of genetic research aimed to produce a deadly genetic virus targeting Muslim people.