Defending Violet
Jennifer Jefferson
Reviewed by Amy Lignor
Dear Readers: This is
a tough one. The subject matter is hard
for me but others will get quite an education on the law and how our
justice
system works. The main character, Ginger
Rae Reddy, is a street-smart attorney who stopped practicing criminal
law and
turned to the more mundane, and better-paying, divorces.
However, when, Violet, a young woman who
she’d protected from an abusive boyfriend years before, contacts her,
Ginger is
pulled back into the world of family abuse and domestic violence.
Violet, the young teenage mom, is arrested for shaking her
baby and putting her son, Teddy, into a coma.
Ginger suspects that the abusive boyfriend has returned and that
he, in
fact, is the one responsible for the horrific deed.
When the baby dies, Ginger’s world falls
apart as she neglects her family, her clients, and her own health to
save
Violet. She finds herself pitted against
the toughest defense lawyer in the city and, when the truth is revealed
about
what happened that horrible night, Ginger is shattered by the harsh,
cold
revelation.
Ginger is a wonderful character.
I’ve worked in this type of “situation”
before and Ginger is one of the good guys.
She is one of those wonderful people who step in to save
children and
families from horrible, nightmarish futures.
Unfortunately, even with these wonderful people out there, this
kind of
thing still happens. The injustice still
filters through the courtrooms of America,
and little children still lose their lives.
Ginger’s family, her husband and her stepson, are intriguing and
delightful. You really care about them
as they try with all their might to hang on to Ginger and to understand
the
drive she has that takes her away from them so much of the time. In addition, her investigator, Marco, who is
studying to become a lawyer, is also a breath of fresh air with his
friendship
and advice for Ginger in her time of desperation.
All in all, this is a well-written book about a
horrible
subject that I think everyone would like to see disappear.
The author is a lawyer who worked on domestic
violence cases and child abuse/neglect cases in New
Jersey. She
knows what she’s talking about and doesn’t pull any punches. One of the most frightening things is that I
received the press release with the book and a statistic was mentioned: As many as 1,400 children, from a few days to
five years old, die every year from Shaken Baby Syndrome.
This made my blood run cold.
For anyone interested in a well-written plot, good
characters doing a hard job, and the legal practices that are used in
cases
such as these – Defending Violet is a
good read for you. I would put this one
in the learning column rather than entertainment. That
being said, it’s probably a very good
idea for everyone to read this story and understand how hard the fight
for
justice really is.
Author Web Site