Defending Jacob

Defending Jacob follows the story of respected assistant district attorney Andy Barber. When his fourteen year old son Jacob is accused of murdering his classmate, Andy struggles to do his job while also protecting his son. So much evidence leans towards Jacob being guilty, but there is also a lot that could prove him innocent.

Author William Landay does a great job of keeping the reader intrigued all the way though which is hard to do with a mystery like this. He had a fantastic twist ending that I actually didn't see coming. I didn't know the entire time whether Jacob had been falsely accused or not. I liked that Landay himself is a former district attorney just like the main character. It made the courtroom scenes and legal jargin much more believable which added to the story.

The character of Jacob is mostly developed through the eyes of the other characters. I think this helped with the suspicion and mystery of not knowing for sure if he was guilty or not. I had to rely on other people's opinions about Jacob to get an idea of what he was like.

This was a very emotional story and just as much a family drama as it was a crime thriller. I found it similar to We Need to Talk About Kevin, another great read. Go pick up Defending Jacob and enjoy getting lost in the mystery!