Rosalind Bentley, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Stacey Abrams' latest novel, "While Justice Sleeps," feels modern until the protagonist comes home from a horrendous day and listens to annoying then menacing voicemails â left on a landline, attached to an answering machine, that beeps in between calls. Why did she make such an anachronistic choice for the fictional 26-year-old U.S. Supreme Court law clerk at the heart of this sprawling thriller about the race to unravel a multinational conspiracy and save the life of one of the justices? "I keep a landline and an answering machine," Abrams, 47, said. "I keep a landline because if your service goes out, a landline still works. And I actually have a non-digital phone attached to one of my landlines."