This is the first Jodi Picoult book I've read, and if truth be told, I wouldn't have read Plain Truth (#597) if it hadn't been our October Literary Circle choice. The plot centers on a newborn infant found dead under suspicious circumstances in an Amish barn.
The eighteen year old daughter of the household who at first denies ever being pregnant is defended by a distant relative, a big time city attorney who is forced under the terms of the court to live with the Fisher family until the case comes to trial. Amish and "English" values collide as Katie Fisher is charged with the murder of the infant. Did Katie really kill her baby, or is there some other explanation? While an interesting examination of Amish principles and values, as the same ground was covered over and over again I felt that the book would have been much improved by cutting out roughly half of it.
When Ellie Hathaway discovers just as the case is about to go to trial that she is pregnant herself, her attitude towards her client Katie hardens, since even she is convinced that Katie did, in fact, murder her own child, despite her close observation of the girl and her family over the course of several months. That plot twist did seem contrived.
I expect that Plain Truth will be both the first and the last Jodi Picoult novel I will ever read, and that, I guess, sums up how I feel about his author..
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