Defending Jacob

Defending Jacob follows Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney in a Massachusetts suburb, whose life is upended when his fourteen-year-old son Jacob is charged with murdering a classmate in a local park.

Convinced of his son's innocence, Andy takes charge of the case himself, even as evidence mounts and his own family history — including a father he has spent his life trying to escape — comes under scrutiny. Told partly through courtroom transcripts from a later grand jury proceeding, the novel unfolds as both a legal thriller and a portrait of a family unraveling under suspicion.

William Landay builds the story around questions of nature versus nurture, culminating in a twist that recontextualizes everything the reader has been told. The novel was adapted into a 2020 Apple TV+ limited series.