Book questions how far a parent would go for their child

Written by Rebekah Benoit
Wednesday, 15 February 2012 09:12

What wouldn’t you do for your child?

For most of us, the question is one that virtually every parent has asked themselves at one time or another, and the answer comes quickly and easily: anything. If one of our children needed our house, our life savings, our heart or kidney or lungs, we’d give it to them unhesitatingly —the answer rolls off the tongue easily enough.

But the question, for most of us, is largely hypothetical. We all hope that such a situation will never happen, that our children will grow up facing only the usual childhood traumas and teenage angst—their first heartbreak, the occasional schoolyard bully, their first flubbed job interview or fender-bender.

But what if your child were accused of something terrible? Would you believe them and defend them, blindly? Would you stand by them in the fact of overwhelming evidence, refusing to believe that the child you have birthed and nurtured might be capable of something truly monstrous? Would you stick by your child, through thick and thin, defending them against the accusing fingers of the world?

It is this question, the question of how far a parent should go in defense of their child and what it truly means to love unconditionally, that author William Landay explores in Defending Jacob.

Andy Barber is a successful prosecutor, well on his way up in the D.A.’s office, when he’s handed a case that surprises even him, a battle-hardened attorney who has seen years of humanity’s worst.

A 14-year-old boy in his own town has been brutally murdered, his bloody body left in the mouldering leaves of a park near Barber’s own home. The case hits startlingly close to home—the murdered boy, Ben Rifkin, attended his own son Jacob’s school, and the park where the body was found is the same route Jacob takes to school every day. Determined to find the killer and bring some semblance of peace to his shocked community, Barber begins investigating a known child molester who lives nearby.

But before the investigation even really gets underway, the Barber family is rocked by a new accusation: Jacob himself is under suspicion.Schoolmates admit under questioning that Jacob Barber had more than enough motive to want to kill Ben Rifkin—the popular boy had been bullying and harassing Jacob more months. Facebook messages and posts on Jacob’s page suggest that he has a large, dangerous-looking knife that could easily have been the murder weapon, a knife that Andy discovers for himself in Jacob’s dresser drawer and disposes of, in a panic. Jacob himself denies any involvement, but the recalcitrant teenager is less than convincing, leading to a charge of murder. Andy Barber is removed from the case and finds himself in the unenviable role of defending his own son from the terrible accusation.

As the trial edges nearer, more damning evidence surfaces, suggesting that Jacob has a dark side that neither of his parents ever suspected existed. His mother, Laurie, is stunned and horrified, but deep down, Andy Barber is more than shocked—he’s guilt-ridden. Barber has gone to great paints to hide his heritage from his wife and son, but as the legal process continues, his own dark secrets come to light. Andy Barber, community pillar and defender of the people, is himself descended from three generations of violent criminals, leading people to ask whether Jacob is a cold-blooded killer by choice, or whether he’s simply the product of generations of murderous genetics.

I liked this book. It was edgy and suspenseful, and I admired Andy Barber’s aggressive determination to believe in and defend his son even as his marriage crumbles and his wife Laurie’s faith in their son’s innocence fades.

I did, however, find Andy Barber’s blind conviction in Jacob to be a bit hard to believe—the evidence becomes more and more overwhelming, and yet Andy refuses to even consider that Jacob might be responsible—and I also found the story a bit incoherent. True, it comes together in the end in a shocking twist that I didn’t see coming, but it’s a bit of an arduous journey to get there.

All in all, a suspenseful, fast-paced thriller that makes you think.

four teacups