Rating: 
Summary: A Solid Writer Transcends His 'Genre'
Review: Within the pages of "Protect And Defend" there is no murder to solve, no element of "whodunnit." That is not to say that the traditional element of "bite-your-nails-and-hope-for-the-best" suspense is missing. Far from it, as author Patterson chooses for himself a broader canvas -- Washington politics and machinations -- with greater implications for today's society as a whole.Newly-inaugurated President Kerry Kilcannon finds himself immediately confronted with the choice of a new Supreme Court Chief Justice designee. Throwing political caution to the winds -- a trait already well-established in "No Safe Place" -- he designates Ninth Circuit Associate Justice Caroline Masters ("Caroline Masters," originally titled "The Final Judgement"), believing her to be the best choice in line with his political philosophy, as well as the fact that she has never taken a stance on the question of abortion vs. right-to-life, a "hot-button" issue in view of Congress' recent actions within that arena. Things -- to slightly paraphrase W.C. Fields -- happen. With an air of inexorability, Masters is then launched into the center of a maelstrom of controversy as she finds herself forced to cast the deciding vote -- and to write the judicial opinion -- in a landmark decision regarding the very question about which she'd previously stood moot. It is at this point that Kilcannon's political enemies begin to sharpen their knives. "Protect And Defend," contrary to what many may choose to think, is not a novel about "women's rights vs. right-to-life;" rather, it's a novel about morality vs. expediency, in which political opportunism challenges the issue of conscience. And, once you involve conscience, there are no easy, 'one-size-fits-all' answers. Patterson makes it clear, within the pages of this novel, that his ultimate sympathies lie with the "women's choice" partisans; by the same token, he strives for balance and fairness: one of the most sympathetic characters in the novel is Martin Tierney, a devout "right-to-lifer" whose underage daughter prompts what turns into Kilcannon's first political crisis. Whatever a reader's particular stance may be on this issue, Tierney's parental agony stands as real and compelling. Furthermore, in his acknowledgments, Patterson notes that he attempted -- without success -- to get feedback from various Right-to-Life groups so as to gain a deeper insight and balance for this novel. Ultimately, however, the suspense in this novel is provided by the conflict between well-meaning people on both sides of the issue and the degree to which it can be -- and, frankly, has been -- exacerbated by the opportunists on either side. I don't think I'm giving a "spoiler" here by saying that the novel ends on a note of optimism for ultimate reconciliation. Quick note: Richard North Patterson has a tendency to 'recycle' his characters (Masters and Kilcannon, for example; Adam Shaw -- from "The Outside Man" -- also turns up here) and to do it effectively. There are at least two characters from "Protect and Defend" whom I devoutly hope to encounter in future Patterson efforts. This is a superb novel, and a leap forward for Richard North Patterson, who never seems to write the same book twice. It's more than a 'thriller.' Yet it thrills nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: enjoyable political/legal thriller
Review: This was a relatively quick read for me since I had a difficult time putting it down. I enjoyed the braiding of the various aspects of government and law. The story follows a newly inaugarated Democratic President trying to get a new Chief Justice appointed and his interactions with the Republican Chair of the Judicial Committee and the Republican Senate Majority Leader. In the meantime, the nomiated judge can't avoid a high profile abortion trial which could ruin the possibility of a seat on the Supreme Court. While I have little knowledge of the accuracy of the story, it provided insight into national politics as well as potential problems with abortion laws.
My only hesitation for 5-stars is how nearly all of the main players in the story have personal experience with abortion or adoption. Although it might make the story more interesting, it also makes the conclusions more foreseeable. Regardless, readers who enjoy political or legal thrillers will enjoy this one (unless perhaps their political leanings fall too far to the right).
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but a little long
Review: I generally enjoy R.N. Patterson's stories and was thrilled to start reading this one that obviously laid out his Democrat leanings. The story was intriguing and well connected. It is tough to bring together so many different stories and keep it all straight, so I give him a lot of credit. I also like the pleasant surprise of bringing in characters from other books - it makes you want to read these books to get the explanations of their pasts. My main complaints about this book are that 1) it is a little too long and 2) some parts were kind of boring and not incredibly gripping. If you enjoy RNP, you will enjoy this book, but make sure you have some time on your hands and be prepared for a few slow parts.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Preachy
Review: I'm a Richard North Patterson fan and looked forward to this book. What a dissapointment! The subject matter was interesting but the characters preached their views like a pastor on Sunday morning. The book could have been 100 pages shorter and still contained the same action and made the same points. I haven't given up on Patterson, but I hope he returns to his terse writing style next time.
Rating: 
Summary: A BIG waste of time
Review: This book stinks. It serves as nothing more than a pro-abortion platform, consisting mostly of contrived arguments pro and con, which are always won, you guessed it, buy the much more thoughtful and compassionate pro. The rest of the book merely wraps around this platform in an attempt to present the book as something other than the author venting.
Rating:
Summary: Protect and Defend
Review: I am most iimpressed by Patterson's ability to interweave not only subplots and allied stories but also the past and present, coupled with all verbal tenses while doing so. Perhaps the finest achievement of all, moreover, is his ability to present both sides of an adversarial issue so persuasively, while all the time being very informative and educational. Doing all this while simultaneously maintaining supense, and allowing the reader to clearly form his or her mental image of the characters and the milieu is quite masterful. I have learned that to either read or listen to any of Mr. Patterson's work that is abridged, is a definite mistake.
Rating:
Summary: It only SEEMS like a stand is being taken here
Review: This book fuses two sagas--Kerry Kilcannon of the Kilcannon family and Chris Paget's courageous judge Caroline Masters. So, given such great examples of Patterson's formidable reservoir of charcters, why does this story in the final analysis fall into the stale cliche of a contemporary hot-button issue--that of abortion rights? A new President has to come up with an appointee for the Supreme Court, and it turns out to be none other than Aunt Caroline (Judge Masters has a beloved niece who's actually her out-of-wedlock daughter). Another complication Masters faces is that an old protegee is now handling an abortion case herself. This whole book revolves so much around the "A"-word that it almost feels like an old Irving Wallace book. Maybe instead of "The Seven Minutes", we have "The Seven Months" here, huh? Okay, maybe that is merely reflective of society's obsession with that issue, but how come hardly anybody realizes that it is after all an obsession? At this point in time, we do indeed have the "pro-choice" and the "pro-life" forces locked in the kind of battle that must have some outsiders asking of us in America: "Is that issue all these people ever think about?" The names for both sides themselves indicate that each considers themselves on a holy crusade--they call each other by the terms "anti-choice" and "baby-killers". And the irony is that in the middle of the previous century, the anti-abortion movement was an offshoot of what were then called "decency leagues"--they considered unwanted pregnancy to be the original penalty for "illicit" sex, and as such, the most logical deterrent. In that spirit, even contraception was wrong. At the same time, a growing number of their opponents play the gender card nowadays--to prevent a woman from terminating her pregnancy is by definition a subtle form of male domination. That's the whole problem of this book--if there's a story line consistent with what we've come to expect from Patterson, it tends to be obscured by the smoke and flash of political zealotry. So what if Patterson presents both sides of the argument? Why not just tell a good story and never mind EITHER side? If I wanted to listen to know-it-alls and holier-than-thous, I'd tune in to "Frontline". I look to Richard North Patterson as a STORYTELLER. If he pulls this again, I'm history as a reader.
Rating:
Summary: superb
Review: the writing of this book is so fantastic, the dialogue,
the strength of characters. i just can't get over how well this was executed. a newly elected president, a supreme court nominee,
a 15 year old girl who wants to abort against her parents wishes (the child will be born without a brain) and a young attorney
who battles on to protect minors from society & their parents.
this is riveting.
Rating: 
Summary: not a grabber but still worth reading!
Review: A great book but not a fantastic thriller. It looses its punch towards the ending. I could have thought that the author would have at least let me guess until the ending.
Rating:
Summary: A good political thriller
Review: One of the marks of a good novel is you simultaneously want to get to the end to see how it turns out and also want the book to be almost endless so you can keep enjoying it. If a book can do that - and this one can - it almost certainly merits five stars. Even before finishing this book, I knew that the largest amount of criticism would come from people who disagreed with the views presented in the story on abortion. A quick scan of the one-star reviews reaffirmed this. While there is a definite pro-choice slant to the story, there is also a legitimate attempt to present the other side of the issue with some even-handedness. Sure, the villains are arch-conservatives (though not all the arch-conservatives are villains) and the protagonists are generally (but not completely) moderate or liberal, and this may reflect Patterson's own views, but that is not the point. If you write a political suspense story, you need politics and that means that the heroes and villains need to be one side or the other. If all the characters were on the same side - or even worse, politically neutral - then even if the story was inoffensive, it would also be boring. I can enjoy a story in which I disagree with the themes (political or otherwise) provided it is not a political tract disguised as fiction. Even if I agreed with the themes, I would still dislike a novel if it didn't put the story first. Interestingly, the theme of this novel is that you judge things on merits, not irrelevancies. In the story, this meant judging a potential Chief Justice on her legal abilities and not on her personal life. Similarly, this story should be judged on its merits: a well-executed plot, rich details and compelling characters. Those who dismiss this book merely because it doesn't agree with their own political views do it a disservice.
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