Lori's Book Sense ~ November

I'm doing things a little different this month. I have just one book I am going to share with you. The reason being is that it is, hands down, one of the best books I've ever read! And it wouldn't be fair to any other book I happen to recommend in the same space.  The only problem is (for the rest of you) is that the book doesn't come out until January 31st.

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.
 

When I closed the last page of this book, I sat there and went "woah".  I couldn't believe the journey the story that I had just read had taken me on. The story is that of a Andy Barber, an ADA in Massachusetts, who decides not to assign another prosecutor the case of a fourteen-year-old boy found murdered in a local park, but to prosecute it himself, despite the fact that others feel he should step down since his son went to the same school as the victim. He doesn't feel there is a conflict of interest, as his son claims not to have known the murdered boy. But, when his son is arrested and charged with the murder, Andy is forced to step down from the case and suddenly finds himself on the other side of the courtroom.

This book deals with issues of nature vs nurture, and how much your upbringing vs your DNA factor in to the person you become. Can the sins of your families past (nature) become the person of your present, even if you never knew about them (nurture)?  How blinded can you be when looking at your children? Do you really only see what you want to see? Does unconditional love truly know no bounds?

What follows is an emotional story that is part courtroom thriller, part mystery, and part family drama. All of which combine to create an emotionally packed tale of one families struggle to not only believe in their child, and what's he's told them, but to find a way to save him, and their family unit. At any cost.

I'll have my full review up on my blog soon, so make sure to look for it.  In the mean time, pre-order this book - TODAY! I promise, you won't be disappointed.