The Good Son

I give it a 2 1/2. I liked the plot, the premise that bad things happen to good people, redeeming yourself after a horrible mistake is possible, and being a productive citizen after prison. BUT...the author would interrupt the story with having the narrator (mother) all of a sudden go off on an irrelevant memory, or unnecessarily steer away from the plot line. It took away from the main character's story. AND, the
ending came about way too abruptly.

Interesting Story, Perhaps Better Served By A Different Storytelling Technique. This is an interesting story of what happens after a person who has been accused of a heinous crime is released from prison and the toll wrought on the person and their family and friends - particularly in the face of continued harassment from the community. Readers who hate multi-perspective stories will enjoy the fact that we only really get one perspective here, but this is actually the weakest thing about the book to my own mind. For me, having a multi-perspective book with the prisoner's mother (the perspective we get here), the prisoner, and maybe even the stranger and the victim's mother, would have made this story quite a bit tighter and potentially, assuming it was done right, that much more interesting. The issues that the book does explore well - restorative justice, repentance, forgiveness, mother's love, etc - could have been further strengthened by this other technique as well. Still, for what we do get here, it is fairly solid but not “edge of your seat” reading. If you go into this expecting a thrill-a-minute... you're reading the wrong dang book. But if you look at this more as a character study / family drama with elements of suspense and thriller, you're likely going to leave this book more satisfied. Very much recommended.