Presumed Guilty Book

Usually I like Bell's books - you can tell that he is a lawyer and he gets the little details right. This book, however, left me confused. What exactly was the author trying to do? At times it was a murder mystery, the story of a pastor gone bad, a sermon against the evils of pornography and the first-hand glance at a woman who thought she knew her husband but had the rug pulled out from under her.

Plot aside, I also found character development to be shallow. The oldest child, Cara, never became real to the reader. She seemed to take everything in stride and was two-dimensional. The other child, Jared, was almost too over-the-top and his supposedly deep-seated problems that developed while serving in Iraq were resolved too quickly and painlessly.

Having never been married, I guess I can't really comment on the easy reconciliation between husband and wife after atrocious betrayals but as a trained marriage and family therapist I don't think it was realistic. Give this book a pass.