Defending Jacob - book review

        
          Wow. That’s the word that immediately escapes my mouth as I close the back cover of a page-turning legal thriller involving a family that, under different circumstances, would look like any other that you might know.

          This is the story of Andy Barber who is an assistant DA in a rural Massachusetts community. He is well known and respected in his position and enjoys a happy home life with wife, Laurie, and 14 year old son, Jacob.

          The entire Barber family’s life is turned upside down when Jacob is accused of murder of one of his classmates. While this obviously tears up the Barber family emotionally, it presents a special wrinkle because of Andy’s position in the DA’s office.

          Andy understandably wants to believe his son is innocent but damning facts and shocking revelations make both parents wonder how well they know their son. This sounds like an open and shut case of a fast-moving thriller to be enjoyed over a weekend or on a sick day from the office.

          There are, however, a whole load of things that happen that are difficult to conceive but, to reveal them here, would spoil this excellent mystery/thriller. Suffice it to say, I’m going to recommend you get to the library or bookstore and read this entertaining story.

          Defending Jacob has been named “One of the Best Books of the Year” by Entertainment Weekly. The author, William Landay, is a Harvard graduate and a former attorney, like John Grisham and Scott Turow.

 

Four bookmarks out of possible five



 

 

Gone Girl - book review

Four out of five possible bookmarks

Gillian Flynn                                 

2012

 

Antonia's Rating:
 

 

 

          It’s a mystery! I’m not sure why, but this surprised me, guess I was expecting something more like love’s lost and it either works out in the end or it doesn’t.

          This is Gillian Flynn’s third novel (see others listed below), and it is destined to be some kind of award winner like her other two books.

          Gone Girl is a spectacular murder mystery along the Scott Peterson lines. I’ll let other reviewers divulge more of the plot than I feel comfortable doing. Suffice it to say, the husband, Nick, is singled out as the killer of his wife, Amy, who might be pregnant.

          As a writer, I appreciate anyone who can write a clever novel with an opposite sex narrative. Ms. Flynn does an excellent job of getting into the mind of her male defendant. His voice sounds genuine.

          This intriguing story is about the power struggles within a marriage. Gone Girl plucks out that ugly core of most relationships and holds it up to the light of just how far husbands and wives may go to be the one on top.

          I like the book’s methodology with Nick and Amy taking turns tossing out myriad details and lots of twists and turns in alternating chapters. The writing is smart and entertaining and very straightforward and, always appreciated by me, easy to follow. Too much weirdness and I’m flipping to the end to see where a book winds up.

          Gone Girl makes me question whether we can really ever know a person … know a spouse. This is a great read, and I highly recommend it.

Other books by author:  Sharp Objects, Dark Places