Defending Jacob has had outstanding word-of-mouth reviews, so I wanted to see what all the buzz was about. You may have heard that there is a shocking twist at the end. Well, thinking that I was all high and mighty, I haughtily had the twist figured out…until I didn’t. Believe me, you won’t see this one coming.
Andy Barber is an assistant district attorney in an idyllic wealthy suburb of Boston. He lives there with his wife, Laurie, and their 14-year-old son, Jacob. Everything is perfect until one day, a classmate of Jacob’s is brutally murdered in a park. Andy quickly gets on the case but is taken off when the evidence points to his son as the prime suspect.
Legal thrillers are a dime a dozen, with John Grisham and Scott Turow being the most famous authors. However, Landay is a master at them, moving all the pieces around like one giant puzzle until everything seems to solve itself. Or so the reader thinks.
Lucky (or not so lucky) for us, Defending Jacob will be a movie soon. Do yourself a favor and read the book before you see it. Sometimes Hollywood messes up a book so badly that it’s a mere token of itself at the end.
MY RATING - 5
