Set in the turbulent landscape of the post–civil rights South, The More Things Change follows attorney Tommy McKee as he navigates the uneasy intersections of race, law, and power in 1980s Alabama. When McKee defends two elderly Black women accused of voter fraud, he uncovers a deeper truth that justice in the New South often mirrors the corruption of the old. Through gripping courtroom battles, moral conflict, and forbidden love, Robert J. Norrell exposes the quiet persistence of inequality and the compromises demanded of those who seek reform. Blending legal drama with social history, the novel explores how prejudice adapts to new disguises, and how courage, guilt, and conscience shape those who challenge it. Both timeless and timely, Norrell’s story illuminates the human cost of progress and the sobering realization that change, however real, is rarely complete.