Before and After

Rating:
Summary: Fast paced murder mystery with unique premise.
Review: This is an exceptionally fast paced thriller with an unusual premise. The terror that the parents feel comes out at you through the pages. The absolute overwhelming horror that something has occured which will forever change the family life and nothing can be done to change what has occurred. The mother and father are well honed characters who let the reader know that sometimes really bad things happen to good people. If this book only reminds us how quickly your life can change, it is well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly unable to sympathize with the parental plight
Review: While I appreciate the difficult theme that Brown tackles here--just how far would you go to protect your children?--I found myself heartily wishing for the son to be found out and hauled off to prison. He was sullen, unpleasant, a murderer (!), and, best of all, a sexual molestor of his own sister. Try as I might, I couldn't understand why I would want to protect such an individual from the legal consequences of his own chosen actions. If there had been some glimmer of doubt, some moral ambiguity as to whether or not his actions really should be punished, *that* would have created a compelling conflict. But I'm not inspired to question my moral assumptions by parents too cowardly to deal appropriately with the matter, simply aghast.