In Doubt
Author: Drusilla Campbell
In Doubt is a terrific read. With a plot complicated and difficult, both morally and legally, In Doubt pulls out its fangs, chomps down hard and delivers. Watch out for the blood splash!
Defense Attorney Sophie Giraudo is from an old and admired family in her home town of San Sebastian, California. Her mother, Anna, is a force to be dealt with and Sophie is taking some risks; she has decided to start a new legal practice with her nagging, overprotective mother as manager of her new firm. The family is close to Maggie Duarte, the petite, outspoken governor of California. Maggie’s parents were illegal immigrants from Mexico and Maggie’s rise is the pride of San Sebastian, her hometown. The town is holding a birthday tribute celebration for their own Maggie, the first female and Mexican American governor in California, as Sophie and her mother, Anna watch from Sophie’s new corner office window.
Iva Devane and her husband Roman are simple people who cannot have children. Roman and Iva have established a program to help adolescent boys in distress called Boys into Men. The program consists of teaching the boys how to garden and plant; Roman runs a large property with two large but gentle mastiffs as pets and sells plants from his large greenhouse and some of the more special boys live in the house where Iva treats them like sons. Roman keeps a clubhouse in the back of the property with a large sign posted BOYS ONLY – NO GIRLS ALLOWED and even Iva is not allowed there, as it is where the boys and Roman go to play pool and chill out.
Elena Crider is not the kind of mother you would want. A pathological narcissist, she treats her son Donny as an extension of her needs and lies to him about his father whom she divorced when Donny was small. Elena feels that she and Maggie Duarte are “astral” sisters as they were born on the same day, and Elena secretly feels that she and Maggie are as one.
Elena has placed her teenage son Donny into Roman and Iva’s program, Boys into Men, but decides she needs him at home. Donny is one of Roman’s special boys, a quiet, well mannered boy who blossoms and understands plants in a way none of the other boys do. Iva Devane is especially proud of how well Donny is doing. And yet Elena demands that he leave the program and come home.
As the plot coalesces into violence beyond comprehension, Campbell creates characters that are unusual to say the least. Sophie watches as Governor Maggie Duarte is shot as she speaks to the crown in the town square of San Sebastian. Donny Crider is the shooter. Roman is not whom he seems. When Sophie decides to defend an almost autistic teenager who has committed a heinous crime, she has to understand Donny’s motivation. She has to understand Donny. And to make things even worse, the prosecutor of the case is her ex-husband.
As In Doubt winds around a tortuous road of compelling human drama, Campbell pulls the plug and creates a novel both unique and compelling in and of itself. Beautifully done, and one of a kind.
Ratings are based on a 5-star scale
Overall: 4.5
Review by Broad “A” – Ava
We received a copy of this title for our book review. All opinions are our own
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