Book Review: Defending Jacob

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through links on my site, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

This is my book review of Defending Jacob by William Landay.

This is a book I’ve read twice and will probably read again. But I warn you that it is disturbing.

Andy Barber is 51, a district attorney, and married to his high school sweetheart, Laurie. They have one child, Jacob, aged 14. 

A boy at Jacob’s school is murdered. And suddenly, inexplicably, the police are looking at Jacob Barber for it. One fingerprint was Jacob’s. And he had a knife that he had once shown a friend that he’d purchased.

When his parents asked him later why he bought the knife, he told them he just wanted it. He thought it was cool.

There are two things that would positively decimate a parent: Your child being killed. Alternatively, your child is implicated as a murderer.

One family is grieving the loss of their son. But the other family is also grieving because their son could go to prison.

The possible loss of the son they thought they’d raised properly was enough. But to possibly conclude that they really hadn’t known him at all was almost worse. And even though he is fourteen years old, he could be tried as an adult.

Their Lives Will Never Be the Same:

Their lives, as they knew them, will never be the same. They are shunned, and there hasn’t even been a trial yet. People write angry and judgmental words on the walls of their house.

One day, they were just normal like everyone else. Now, suddenly, they are looked at as the possible parents of a murderer.

How do parents manage to raise a murderer? Would they ask these questions if it were someone else’s child?

There is something that District Attorney Andy Barber has hidden from his family. He himself is the son of a murderer. Actually, he comes from a long line of criminals, but he turned out fine. He went to law school. He’s an attorney who puts criminals away.

He finally admits this secret to his family because he knows it will probably come out at his son’s trial. And he knows that then his friends and neighbors, and possibly the jury, will look at him differently.

Did he hand down a murder gene to his son? Is there even such a thing? He only wanted his son to have a normal life, a clean slate. Which is something he never had.

But his wife, after hearing this, wonders why he never thought to tell her this after all these years.

He Was Ashamed to Admit the Truth:

It’s because he was ashamed. Who wants to admit such a thing? But we cannot account for the sins of our mothers or fathers.

Andy thinks a local pedophile is the murderer. But no one is looking at him for the crime. They are bearing down hard on his son.

He has been forced into taking a leave of absence. His boss said he should have removed himself from the case as soon as he knew the two boys attended the same school. That makes it a conflict of interest.

Andy also did the unthinkable. He found a knife in Jacob’s room, and he disposed of it. The defense attorney is privy to this information. If he is found out, he will be implicated in the disposal of potential evidence.

He never thought he’d do such a thing. But this is his son.

About the Author:

William Landay is the author of All That Is Mine I Carry With Me and three previous novels. They are Defending Jacob, which won the Strand Critics Award for best mystery novel. The Strangler, listed as a best crime novel of the year by the L.A. Times, Daily Telegraph, and others. And Mission Flats, winner of the Dagger Award for best first crime novel.

A graduate of Yale University and Boston College Law School, he was an assistant district attorney before turning to writing. He lives in Boston, where he is working on his next suspense novel.

I hope you enjoyed my book review.