“Defending Jacob” is the story of a fictional family in Massachusetts whose teenage son is accused of murdering a fellow classmate. The boy’s father and main character of the story is a prosecuting attorney (Assistant DA in the town, in fact), but of course there becomes a conflict of interest when his own son is arrested for the murder. Throughout the book, the father remains convinced that his son is innocent and goes about trying to find evidence to prove it, despite nearly everything pointing at his son being the murderer.

I quite enjoyed the courtroom scenes in this book. They seemed very real and tense. I also enjoyed how accurate the story was to real life in the early 2000’s with the rise of social media playing a key role in the early part of the story. The characters seemed believable, and there never seemed to be an obvious “bad guy,” which I like in books like this. The reader is forced to decide for themselves what they believe happened. When I first started reading, it reminded me of a film noir movie with the accomplished lawyer sitting in his office taking on a new case, describing things through flashbacks, but this feeling faded as the story got rolling. Near the end of the book, when the case seems lost, there is a remarkable twist that I certainly hadn’t seen coming. It seems all is wrapped up nicely, and the book invites the reader to stop reading there… but, of course I knew something more must happen in the last few chapters. Something major must happen, and boy did it happen… The story comes full circle and finally the reader knows what really happened. It is quite a tragic book, but with good twists and turns along the way. I wasn’t thrilled with the main character because he seemed so smart, but also terribly flawed that I lost faith in him at the end. Decent mystery and convincing setting though kept me reading.

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Created Jun 14, 2020 at 2:46pm • Submit your own review...