Janel’s #CBR4 Review#9 Defending Jacob by William Landay
I received a hardcopy of this book via Random House’s EarlyBirdRead Program
I know many reviews compare this book to Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent, but I thought this book also had similar themes to Helen Schulman’s This Beautiful Life. Both books capture how a family reacts when one of their children is part of a scandal.
This book is told within a grand jury transcript of the father’s testimony. The reader doesn’t find out why the father is testifying until 5 pages from the end of the book. A smart reader will see some foreshadowing early in the book around why the father might be testifying.
Even with all the crime/detective dramas on TV, it was interesting to read how a case might be defended. Unfortunately, halfway through the book I got tired of the case/trial and I was ready for the outcome to be shared. I felt the last 20 pages were really unexpected and a little under developed. Landay does incorporate some modern twists into the investigation by including references to Facebook.
While there were some interesting plot twists, I wouldn’t say this book was written any better than any other mystery/thriller I’ve read in the past year.
Reposted from: http://bibliophibian.blogspot.com/2012/02/cbr4-9-defending-jacob-william-landay.html
Cannonball Read IV 