Book Review: Plain Truth

This was another book club selection.  Although I have read and enjoyed one other Jodi Picoult book (The Pact), I sort of shied away from her books after attempting to read the first novel she wrote, entitled Song of the Humpback Whale.  I couldn't even get through that book, but cast it aside about a year ago and hadn't sought out a Picoult book since.  She has definitely grown as a writer and this novel, Plain Truth, was an engrossing read.

The book tells the story of an eighteen-year-old Amish girl, Katie Fisher, who has given birth but doesn't remember any of the circumstances of that birth or of the subsequent death of the newborn.  Ellie Hathaway is a disillusioned attorney who has come to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to get away from a dead relationship and the pressures of her job.  When she learns of Katie's murder charge, she finds herself jumping in to defend the girl.  I found it a bit unbelievable that a lawyer would be allowed to be the client's guardian under bail conditions, but it certainly set up interesting character dynamics to have the lawyer living in the home of this Amish family (a family fraught with its own interesting dynamics and skeletons in the closet, including the earlier death of the youngest child and the disowning of the oldest son for his interest in pursuing a college degree). The reader gets to watch both Katie and Ellie change and grow.

I loved the characters.  I loved the setting and pace.  It was a real page-turner and I enjoyed every minute of this book.  Jodi Picoult is a master storyteller and knows how to weave in appropriate bits of information to keep the story moving.  I did guess the twist at the end, but wondered throughout whether or not my guess was accurate or not.  I think I would have handled the twist differently, just because it lacked some credibility, but overall, I still enjoyed the story line and the interactions of the characters.