by William Landay, 2012, Delacorte Press, a division of Random House, New York

This is a story about an Assistant DA who is caught up in a bad situation when his son is accused of a murder of a classmate.  Complicating the issue is a secret that he has kept from his family, that his father and grandfather were criminals who had a disposition for violent acts.

The book is pretty well written and depicts the stress that the situation places on the father and mother.  The author also creates a believable character in the son, who may be a typical teenager caught up in unfortunate circumstances; or, he might be something else altogether.

I had a bit of trouble with the father’s character, however.  He had investigated many murder cases prior to this one and he locked on to another suspect in this case without a lot of evidence.  He also totally discounted the possibility of his son’s involvement, even though there were some odd circumstances that would have at least caused him to have some questions.  I found his unwavering belief in his son to be a bit of a stretch.

I would have enjoyed the book a lot more without some of the repetitive passages, particularly when it came to descriptions of his wife and how she was coping with the ordeal.  This caused the book to get a bit bogged down.

Overall, it is a pretty good book, but it seemed that it could have been much better.