Helpful Score: 1
superb tale, chilling new twists whenever it reaches a tense plateau
Helpful Score: 1
It was just meh. An ok story line, but it seemed really preachy in areas.(Spoilers ahead)
Bad Police. Bad Media. Bad bad bad. Good kid. Good family. Good good good. The End.
The policeman who rushes to judgement and ignores evidence / forces facts to fit his theory based on his dislike of the father from years ago. The media who sensationalize and try the accused in the press. I wasn't impressed but it was a pleasant evening's entertainment.
Bad Police. Bad Media. Bad bad bad. Good kid. Good family. Good good good. The End.
The policeman who rushes to judgement and ignores evidence / forces facts to fit his theory based on his dislike of the father from years ago. The media who sensationalize and try the accused in the press. I wasn't impressed but it was a pleasant evening's entertainment.
Danny Magill is just about a perfect kid. He has everything going for him -- looks, grades, athletic ability, and a practically guaranteed admission to the college of his choice. Then the police come pounding at his door, arresting Danny for a shocking crime and shattering the perfect world of his family. How could this nightmare be happening to this boy? This family? This town? How will they all survive?
I read this book quite sometime ago and it was a very good mystey.
This is the first book I have read by this author and I cannot put it down! I will definately look for more of her books.
Extremely well written - it keeps you guessing throughout! Did not want to see the book end.
Great book to read really enjoyed... It was very hard to put down...
Teen accused of rape by a classmate, I enjoyed this book Judith Kelman is a good writer, it kept my interest and I could not wait to see how it ended.
An ordinary family is faced with extraordinary events in this novel of psychological suspense
I liked this a lot. A little wordy in spots, but interesting.
this book was a great read. It really made me fill like I was a part of the family going through the trial with the son. I would recommend this book to those who like the mystery kind of "real life" issues.
I loved this book.
Excellent read!
Jess and Charles MagillConnecticut residents, Ivy League, professionally secure physicianshave a happy marriage, three healthy kids, satisfying careers and a lovely home. But when their teenaged honor student/athlete son is arrested and accused of brutally assaulting a female classmate, their comfortable lives are plunged into chaos. Kelman, veteran author of 11 novels (including Fly Away Home), provides a smooth and suspenseful contemporary tale of suburban trauma, setting the scene with harmonious, sweetly domestic tableaux that are succeeded by episodes of a family coming apart. Jess is torn by her younger sons temper tantrums, teenaged daughters hostility, her mothers depressed antagonism and the towns vicious gossip about the family; Charlie emotionally withdraws from the escalating tension; and Jesss psychotherapy practice is stressed by a psychotic patient. A nicely integrated subplot centers around the detective in charge of the case, Sergeant Tucci, Charlies former high school classmate. Tuccis stress level is also high, with a belligerent boss, a 17-year-old daughter whos mysteriously ill and a traumatized, dysfunctional partner.
Judith Kelman still "gets better all the time" (Mary Higgins Clark). Here she paints the picture-perfect magill family--who are about to face a horror they never would have imagined. . .
Danny is handsome, athletic, and smart. Nearly everyone likes and respects him. Suddenly, his entire world shatters when a girl with whom he has been friends since childhood, and to whom he gave a ride home, accuses him of a vicious assault and rape. She has the contusions and body-fluids test to implicate him. Danny arrived home late that night, covered in mud, seemingly distracted. He finally admits to consensual sex, but denies any physical abuse. Readers follow the effects of this charge on his family as the criminal justice system slowly grinds the teen through its plodding routine. His mother's counseling practice declines dramatically. His father reacts strongly as the whole episode reminds him of things long hidden in his own past. The family's unraveling accelerates as Danny's younger brother and sister struggle to understand what is happening. Even his parents' once-strong marriage teeters on the edge of collapse. Investigating the crime, and providing a counterpoint to the family's shaky assumption that Danny has to be innocent, is Detective Tucci. He dislikes Danny's father intensely and believes, in "like father, like son" fashion, that the boy must be guilty. The story provides lots of interesting detail as readers follow each character's thoughts and reasoning.
Perfect families are not always what they seem to be.
Prominent residents of an affluent subur, Jess and Charlie Magill have everything they could want. A happy marriage. Three beautiful children and a charming home. Then one day, the police pound on the door to arrest their teenage son for a shocking crime- and in a matter of minutes, their picture-perfect world falls to pieces...
Back Cover: Prominent residents of an affluent town, Jess and Charlie Magill have a happy marriage and three beautiful, talented children.
Then one day the police pound on their door of their charming suburban home to arrest their teenage son for a shocking crime--
and in a matter of minutes, their perfect world falls to pieces....
But as Jess investigates the events leading up to this fateful day, she dicovers that things may not have been "perfect" for quite some time. And that her family's nightmare has only just begun...
Then one day the police pound on their door of their charming suburban home to arrest their teenage son for a shocking crime--
and in a matter of minutes, their perfect world falls to pieces....
But as Jess investigates the events leading up to this fateful day, she dicovers that things may not have been "perfect" for quite some time. And that her family's nightmare has only just begun...
