Heather Chavez is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley’s English literature program and has worked as a newspaper reporter, editor and contributor to mystery and television blogs. Currently, she’s employed in public affairs for a major health care organization where she writes human interest stories. She lives with her family in Santa Rosa, California.No Bad Deed is Chavez's first book.
At CrimeReads she tagged six crime novels in which the protagonist's own family life introduces another wrinkle to the case. One title on the list:
Defending Jacob, William LandayRead about the other entries on the list.
In this legal thriller, Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber has the respect of his colleagues and a happy domestic life with his wife, Laurie, and their teen son. Then one of Jacob’s classmates is stabbed to death, and Jacob is accused in the crime. The court scenes are realistic and riveting, but it is Andy’s unshakeable defense of his son, and the family’s slow disintegration, that are the emotional core of the story. The chapter Argentina and the climax are standouts in this regard.
Defending Jacob is among Sophie Hnnah's thirteen creepy & dysfunctional families in literature, Hallie Ephron's top ten novels that harness unreliable narrators, Charlie Donlea's top ten slow-burn thrillers, Alafair Burke's six top legal fiction / domestic suspense hybrids, Kate Moretti's eight suspense novels that explore nurture vs. nature and Nicholas Sparks' six top books about family.
The Page 69 Test: Defending Jacob.
--Marshal Zeringue
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