Weidenfeld & Nicolson Defending Jacob

Whilst reading William Landy's novel I was strongly reminded of one of the best legal thrillers of all time i.e., Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, no doubt influenced by the fact that both Landy and Turow are themselves lawyers and write most effectively about the American criminal justice system.Andrew Barber is a prosecutor in a small town outside Boston and is living a comfortable middle class existence with his wife Laurie and young son Jacob. When fourteen year-old Jacob, an only child, is accused of murdering a classmate the Barbers are devastated and their lives shattered. Matters are complicated since when the body is discovered Andy Barber is called to the scene and the initial suspect is a local paedophile. When Jacob admits that he was the first to come across the body Andy is taken off the case. While evidence against Jacob mounts the case is far from watertight and Andy sets about getting the best legal defence for his son.Landay writes with an assurance and restraint that only serve to increase the tension as he very ably depicts a family under intolerable pressure. Laurie who in the opening pages of the book comes across as a rock to the other mums in her circle becomes increasingly fragile. Jacob continues to post on Facebook with disastrous results and the Barbers' lives descends into a nightmare of doubt and uncertainty and, as often happens in such cases, both parents appear to be themselves on trial.It comes to light that Andy has been harbouring a dark secret as his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all murderers although Andy barely knew his father who disappeared from his life when he was five years-old and is currently in prison serving a life sentence. Laurie is naturally shocked and extremely angry that Andy kept this part of his family history from her. The book dwells a bit on the implications of genetics and the question of whether it is possible for someone to inherit a "murder gene".This is a gripping story as the reader wonders if Jacob did indeed kill his classmate and if he is innocent then who did commit the crime. The court case is rivetting and the reader is always aware that it is possible for Jacob to be acquitted even if he is guilty or to be found guilty even if he is innocent. It is also one of the most heart-breaking novels I have ever read and yet it manages to avoid being in any way maudlin.The ending is as brilliant as it is understated and, high praise indeed from me, I consider it to be on a par with the ending in Presumed Innocent although quite different in its content, I was so relieved and pleased to read such a well-written novel in which the author never felt the need to aim merely for the shock value in an attempt to boost sales as is the case with far too many thrillers which are rushed into print today.I highly recommend this haunting and perfectly constructed novel to all readers.

Generally speaking I don’t tend to be a great fan of that very American of genres, the legal thriller, but I made an exception for Defending Jacob by former lawyer William Landay, partly because of the great reviews and partly because I have a morbid fascination with murderous children. I’m glad I did – it’s a well-constructed, engrossing read with a strong cast of realistic, cleverly observed characters.The child in question is the Jacob of the novel’s title, a 14-year-old boy accused of stabbing a classmate to death on his way to school. Jacob is the son of Andy Barber, a senior prosecutor at the district attorney’s office, who is not only convinced that his outwardly normal child could not possibly have committed murder, but also thinks he has an idea who the culprit could be: a local paedophile with a string of – albeit relatively minor – sexual assault convictions for offences against young boys. The rest of the novel deals with the court case itself, and the devastating effect such a situation has on the Barbers’ family life.If this were all there was to Defending Jacob, it would be an engaging but straightforward courtroom drama, the stuff of made-for-tv movies. Fortunately, the story, and the characters, are much more complex than that. Regardless of guilt or innocence, Jacob, may not be the affable average kid his parents believed him to be, and there’s no shortage of skeletons in Andy’s cupboard either, secrets of which even his wife is unaware. Intriguingly, the narrative is inter-cut with a court transcript in which Andy, not Jacob, has been brought before the grand jury. Is Andy as reliable a narrator as we might expect a public prosecutor and a charming, upstanding member of a middle-class smalltown New England community to be?Defending Jacob asks all sorts of questions of its characters, and its readers. As the evidence builds against Jacob, will even his parents start to question his testimony, and how could those nagging doubts affect their family relationships? How far might a parent go to protect their child from a prison sentence? There are also interesting legal questions about the possibility of a ‘murder gene’ – essentially, we’re asked to wonder if there is really such a thing as a ‘bad seed’. This is a book that will force you to confront some of your own prejudices and question what your own motives might be if your own family found itself in a similarly nightmarish situation.As you might expect from a writer with a legal background, William Landay’s prose is strong on precision and detail. This might infuriate those who are looking for faster, pacier plot progress, but I enjoyed the meticulousness with which Landay builds his story, and was certainly never bored. Every character sketch (of which there are many) is pin-sharp, and Andy’s digressions on the subject of his family, colleagues and neighbours are astute and revealing. Despite the narrator’s inherent unreliability – he tells his story with all the cunning you’d expect from a skilled court room lawyer, full of carefully delayed revelations and selective omissions – it’s hard not to feel sympathy and a degree of affinity with him.If I have a complaint, it’s that the main twist in the tale (it’s one of many) feels a little hastily executed, largely because it seems out of step with the rest of the book, which proceeds at a steady, measured pace, and makes the novel’s conclusion slightly abrupt. I also found some of the court room scenes slightly hard to follow at times, although that’s almost certainly down to my lack of knowledge of the US legal system in comparison to ours.Beside that, however, it’s hard to find much fault with Defending Jacob. My attention was held from the first page to the last.

Publisher: Orion BooksISBN 978-1-4091-1537-3When the DAs son is accused of murder nothing in their family is going to be easy.There is some evidence but it is all sketchy at the best.Jacobs father believes implicitly that Jacob is not and could not be capable of this but his mum is not so absolute. She does not want to believe her son could commit murder but also feels that you can never completely know anybody even your own son.The book follows Jacobs trial interspersed with flashback scenes of the lead up to the trial. It is very well written and accessible.The characters come alive on the page. I found it very difficult not to cheat and skip to the end to find out the outcome because I so wanted Jacob to be innocent. I could relate in some ways to the characters and empathized with the parents almost impossible situation.I just kept reading and reading, I could not put this book down. I was gripped and could not read fast enough. When I did reach the end there was an unexpected twist which I found disappointing - see what you think.Highly recommendedPersonal read 5/5Group read 4/5 Only one main discussion point that I could see - would you feel the same as either of the parents about your son in a similar situation? This could develop into quite a lively debate.

A psychological thriller, but the suspense and the plot, as well as one-sided character narration did not do it for me in this book. It read more like a screenplay than a thriller and I found the character description of the mother too thin to support the twist that came at the end, albeit I understood the reasons behind it.

Andy Barber takes on the case of a murdered teenager but soon it seems the evidence is pointing towards his own son Jacob. Taken off the case , Andy vows to prove he is not guilty. But who would ever believe their own child could be guilty of murder? A brilliant book that makes you want to keep reading just one more chapter.