金石堂人們總是希望從法律中尋找真相，真相的認定卻往往取決於人們心中的恐懼……
寧靜的高級住宅區發生了一起少年凶殺案，負責的資深檢察官安迪．巴博必須深入調查，揪出兇手。然而一項關鍵證據，卻讓他的兒子雅各變成了檢方的被告。這項突如其來的指控，迫使安迪說出隱瞞多年的血腥家族歷史。雖然法庭並不採用「殺人基因」這套證詞，但這個說法卻觸動了安迪內心最深處的恐懼。隨著法院開庭，他們的生活被攤在大眾面前一一檢視，巴博夫婦才發現記憶中乖巧的雅各，不知何時已經走進一個他們觸碰不到的世界，他與同儕相處時的反應、容易躁怒的脾氣、說話時冷漠的口吻，感覺就像個陌生人。儘管如此，安迪和蘿莉仍舊願意犧牲一切來捍衛自己的孩子，畢竟，在內心深處，他們比任何人都要更了解雅各……不是嗎？
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But 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.
Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, 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 truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.
Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis — a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.
★本書中譯版《捍衛雅各》由三采出版。
作者簡介
威廉．藍迪 William Landay
耶魯大學畢業，隨後在波士頓學院取得律師學位，現居波士頓。他在開始寫作之前是位助理檢察官，著有兩本小說：《Mission Flats》榮獲英國推理作家協會匕首獎的新人小說獎 ；《The Strangler》榮獲提名史全德評審獎的年度最佳犯罪小說，被翻譯成十六國語言。《捍衛雅各》是他的第三本小說，甫出版及登上紐約時報暢銷排行榜。
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.
