The Final Case
A novel
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3.6 • 47 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars—a moving father-son story that is also a taut courtroom drama and a bold examination of privilege, power, and how to live a meaningful life.
"Ultimately, the mystery at the center of The Final Case is not about innocence or guilt, but about how one family’s profound attachments can stand alongside breathtaking cruelty in another.” —Scott Turow, The New York Times Book Review
A girl dies one late, rainy night a few feet from the back door of her home. The girl, Abeba, was born in Ethiopia. Her adoptive parents, Delvin and Betsy Harvey—conservative, white fundamentalist Christians—are charged with her murder.
Royal, a Seattle criminal attorney in the last days of his long career, takes Betsy Harvey’s case. An octogenarian without a driver’s license, he leans on his son—the novel’s narrator—as he prepares for trial.
So begins The Final Case, a bracing, astute, and deeply affecting examination of justice and injustice—and familial love. David Guterson’s first courtroom drama since Snow Falling on Cedars, it is his most compelling and heartfelt novel to date.
Customer Reviews
A puzzling book to review
The author starts out implying this is at least in part a true story. The narrator is a fiction writer as is the author. It is ostensibly about a murder or about mistreatment leading to death so it was effectively murder. But then it is about human nature and the search for love and goodness in people.
I have been a fan of the author since I read snow falling on cedars. After that I read East of the Mountains which moved me because it was about a dying doctor seeking an easy way to die. I now realize there are other of the author’s books I have yet to read. I need to get ahold of them and follow up.
In some ways this is a book about sadness - sadness that bad things can happen to good people. It is also a book about satisfaction that people can love one another.
I’m not sure I feel motivated to read the rest of the author’s books at this point. I probably will - but after an interlude of reading other books.