Defending Jacob - by William Landay (Paperback)

About the Book

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. 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. 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 the truth and allegation, between a past he's tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "A legal thriller that's comparable to classics such as Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent . . . tragic and shocking."--Associated Press

NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED ORIGINAL STREAMING SERIES - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly - Boston Globe - Kansas City Star

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is respected. Admired in the courtroom. Happy at home with the loves of his life: his wife, Laurie, and their teenage son, Jacob. Then Andy's quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a leafy park. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy's own son--shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob.

Andy believes in Jacob's innocence. Any parent would. But the pressure mounts. Damning evidence. Doubt. A faltering marriage. The neighbors' contempt. A murder trial that threatens to obliterate Andy's family. It is the ultimate test for any parent: How far would you go to protect your child? It is a test of devotion. A test of how well a parent can know a child. For Andy Barber, a man with an iron will and a dark secret, it is a test of guilt and innocence in the deepest sense.

How far would you go?

Praise for Defending Jacob

"A novel like this comes along maybe once a decade . . . a tour de force, a full-blooded legal thriller about a murder trial and the way it shatters a family. With its relentless suspense, its mesmerizing prose, and a shocking twist at the end, it's every bit as good as Scott Turow's great Presumed Innocent. But it's also something more: an indelible domestic drama that calls to mind Ordinary People and We Need to Talk About Kevin. A spellbinding and unforgettable literary crime novel."--Joseph Finder

"Defending Jacob is smart, sophisticated, and suspenseful--capturing both the complexity and stunning fragility of family life."--Lee Child

"Powerful . . . leaves you gasping breathlessly at each shocking revelation."--Lisa Gardner

"Disturbing, complex, and gripping, Defending Jacob is impossible to put down. William Landay is a stunning talent."--Carla Neggers

"Riveting, suspenseful, and emotionally searing."--Linwood Barclay

Review Quotes

"Ingenious . . . Nothing is predictable. All bets are off."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"A legal thriller that's comparable to classics such as Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent . . . Tragic and shocking, Defending Jacob is sure to generate buzz."--Associated Press

"Stunning . . . a novel that comes to you out of the blue and manages to keep you reading feverishly until the whole thing is completed."--The Huffington Post

"Gripping . . . [Landay] keeps you turning the pages through the shocking gut-punch of an ending."--Entertainment Weekly

"Gripping, emotional murder saga . . . The shocking ending will have readers pulling up their bedcovers to ward off the haunting chill."--People

"The hype is justified. . . . Exceptionally serious, suspenseful, engrossing."--The Washington Post

"Not since Scott Turow has a crime thriller--any thriller, though this too happens to be a literary legal thriller--shaken me by the throat like this. It's a stunning, shocking, emotionally harrowing ride in which the reader is plunged into a riveting but terrible murder trial and the equally heartbreaking implosion of a loving family."--Daily Mail

"Even with unexpected twists and turns, the two narratives interlock like the teeth of a zipper, building to a tough and unflinching finale. This novel has major motion picture written all over it."--The Boston Globe

"[William] Landay does the seemingly impossible by coming up with a new wrinkle in the crowded subgenre of courtroom thrillers. . . . It's inevitable that he'll be compared to Scott Turow, but this novel succeeds on its own merits."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

William Landay is the author of The Strangler, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Crime Book of the Year, and Mission Flats, winner of the Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel and a Barry Award nominee. A former district attorney who holds degrees from Yale and Boston College Law School, Landay lives in Boston, where he is at work on his next novel of suspense.