Defending Jacob

When I finish reading a book, it either goes on my bookshelf so that I can read it at a later date or I pass it on with the explanation that it is "so so" or OK.  The book, Defending Jacob, is a keeper.  The pace is fast and you are intellectual engaged the entire time.  Landay has written an original script and I felt that I was sitting in the movie, The Fifth Sense, when I got to the end, I did not see it coming. The Barber family could be your neighbors but their normalcy is on the surface and what is disconcerting is that it could be any family USA. What secrets do we have?  Are we harboring a dark history that includes a behavioral trait called the murder gene? Or a genetic history that has yet to be plotted but governs our actions and makes us predestine to act in a certain manner.
Jacob is sullen, withdrawn, prone to stay in his room and unresponsive when speaking to his parents. This is what his parents see and they compare him to other teenagers through the glasses of loyalty and love and the result is acceptable. With the allegations that Jacob murdered a fellow teenager who had been bullying him, they are forced to confront the truth.  Laurie Barber shatters like a car windshield. As she fragments she manages to hold the pieces in place until a second event sends her hurtling toward justice. Andy Barber, trudges on with blinders.  The role of father cannot be set aside, nor can it be trampled. We must determine what makes him the person he is.  We see him as a powerful adversary for the courts and we see him as a father and husband but we are left with the impression that the truth behind the man lies in his background and the events that shaped it. It is his performance that is the most riveting and compelling.