There 's a wonderful A great deal of the enjoyment that comes from reading
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There's a wonderful, dreamy scene late in William Landay's courtroom thriller "Defending Jacob," in which Andy Barber, his wife Laurie and their accused son Jacob are all lolling in the 14-year-old's bedroom musing about decamping as a family and sneaking off to faraway, exotic Buenos Aires to start a new life out of the spotlight and free of suspicion.Jacob asks, "Is that true, Dad? Lots of beautiful women in Buenos Aires?""That's what I hear."Laurie describes the South American city as a place of possibility where her son "will have children, and his children will have children and he'll bring so much happiness to so many people that no one will ever believe that once upon a time in America people said horrible things about him."At this point in Jacob's first-degree murder trial it's evident to all three and to us that none of that is likely to happen, but still they can imagine and try to cope with an increasingly dark reality filled with dread and edging toward despair.Jacob has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of classmate Ben Rifkin, a bully. Jacob's father, an assistant DA until the indictment, is helping with his son's defense. He narrates the story, which is a suspenseful legal thriller that spirals into a harrowing story of family dissolution.Carefully plotted as any whodunit you've ever read, the theme takes on the same nature-versus-nurture argument as William March's provocative potboiler "The Bad Seed." Unknown to Laurie, Andy is the son and grandson of violent murderers and the question becomes has Jacob too inherited a "Murder" gene, the "Barber Curse?" Suspicion becomes as corrosive as rust as family loyalty and love are tested beyond reasonable limits.A great deal of the enjoyment that comes from reading "Defending Jacob" is the pitch-perfect dialogue. Kids talk to each other and to adults just like the kids do in your house. When Andy articulates his life-long, adoring attachment to Laurie, the language is almost elegiac and in painful contrast to the harsh reality of their current relationship.Descriptions are vivid and memorable. Jacob, Landay says, has a way of keeping his answers short "as if every word was a stick of dynamite." One soft-bodied character appears as if "His sides, belly, and tits all sagged against his black polo shirt, as if he had been poured and bagged up inside this black sack cinched shut at the neck.""Defending Jacob" is in rare company as a courtroom drama that comes along very infrequently. Its most recent predecessor, to my mind, is "Presumed Innocent." Both stories had a final twist that you think you're prepared for and still it comes out of nowhere. In a single short sentence and a few words everything changes. "Defending Jacob" is bold storytelling, compelling reading.[4.5 stars] 