Bonus Content
Defending Jacob
Chapter 1
In the Grand Jury
Mr. Logiudice: State your name, please.
Witness: Andrew Barber.
Mr. Logiudice: What do you do for work, Mr. Barber?
Witness: I was an assistant district attorney in this county for 22 years.
Mr. Logiudice: "Was." What do you do for work now?
Witness: I suppose you'd say I'm unemployed.
In April 2008, Neal Logiudice finally subpoenaed me to appear before the grand jury. By then it was too late. Too late for his case, certainly, but also too late for Logiudice. His reputation was already damaged beyond repair, and his career along with it. A prosecutor can limp along with a damaged reputation for a while, but his colleagues will watch him like wolves and eventually he will be forced out, for the good of the pack. I have seen it many times: an ADA is irreplaceable one day, forgotten the next.
I have always had a soft spot for Neal Logiudice (pronounced la-JOO-dis). He came to the DA's office a dozen years before this, right out of law school. He was twenty-nine then, short, with thinning hair and a little potbelly. His mouth was overstuffed with teeth; he had to force it shut, like a full suitcase, which left him with a sour, pucker-mouthed expression. I used to get after him not to make this face in front of juries-nobody likes a scold-but he did it unconsciously. He would get up in front of the jury box shaking his head and pursing his lips like a schoolmarm or a priest, and in every juror there stirred a secret desire to vote against him. Inside the office, Logiudice was a bit of an operator and a kiss-ass. He got a lot of teasing. Other ADAs tooled on him endlessly, but he got it from everyone, even people who worked with the office at arm's length-cops, clerks, secretaries, people who did not usually make their contempt for a prosecutor quite so obvious. They called him Milhouse, after a dweeby character on The Simpsons, and they came up with a thousand variations on his name: LoFoolish, LoDoofus, Sid Vicious, Judicious, on and on. But to me, Logiudice was okay. He was just innocent. With the best intentions, he smashed people's lives and never lost a minute of sleep over it. He only went after bad guys, after all. That is the Prosecutor's Fallacy-They are bad guys because I am prosecuting them-and Logiudice was not the first to be fooled by it, so I forgave him for being righteous. I even liked him. I rooted for him precisely because of his oddities, the unpronounceable name, the snaggled teeth-which any of his peers would have had straightened with expensive braces, paid for by Mummy and Daddy-even his naked ambition. I saw something in the guy. An air of sturdiness in the way he bore up under so much rejection, how he just took it and took it.
Excerpted from Defending Jacob by William Landay. Copyright © 2012 by William Landay. Excerpted by permission of Delacorte Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Defending Jacob
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than 20 years. He is well-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 14-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 damning facts and shocking revelations begin to 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’s Defending Jacob is the consummate tale 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.
Hardcover : 432 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press / Div. of Random House ( January 31, 2012 )
Item #: 13-430781
ISBN: 9780385344227
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.97inches
Product Weight: 15.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
May 09, 2012
First time reading this author and enjoyed the book very much. Had a hard time putting it down and will definately read more of his books.
Reviewer: kathy m
horrible book and horrible language 
April 16, 2012
Dear William Landay,
Your book is horrible! Your characters weren't at all engaging, your language alone ruined the book, and what's up with the ending? Just get lazy?? I will never read another book of yours!
Dear Literary Guild,
Please do not mislead your customers by saying that "explicit violence, language, or sex" will be marked in your catalogs. This is not the first time I have wasted my time and money on a book that wound up in the trash!
Reviewer: daizymaizey
Timely, thought provoking, suspenseful!
April 02, 2012
I loved this book! It gets into the terrifying stuff that adolescents are "in" to. Tie in the culture of bullying, parenting issues, and even a little "science". I would read another of his.
Reviewer: Colette
Kept my attention all the way through
March 31, 2012
Great legal thriller. He sounded familiar with the legal process, so the scene was set very believably. I could hardly put it down.
Reviewer: Diane Z
Disappointing
March 29, 2012
Due to positive reviews, I purchased this book. This was a new author for me, and was looking forward to a great read. However - I was very disappointed. I did not finish the book, and this is very rare behavior for me. I found it "disorganized", characters not evolved, & quite frankly - boring. As I said disappointing after looking forward to adding a new author to my reading list.
Reviewer: Anne R
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