From amazon.com: "Philadelphia defense lawyer Ellie Hathaway retreats to her great Aunt Leda's home in Paradise, PA, to get a break from her high-pressure job. Almost at the same time that she arrives, a dead baby is discovered in the barn of an Amish farmer. A police investigation reveals that the mother is an 18-year-old unmarried Amish girl, Katie Fisher, and that the infant apparently did not die of natural causes."

Jodi Picoult is a bestselling author, but I don't think that I have read any of her books. Whether this turns out to be crime or drama, it doesn't really sound like my kind of book...
Found this book in a backpackers' hostel in Sydney.

Reserved for leeny37!

Fleebo kindly mailed this to me when I expressed interest in Jodi Picoult's books. Thanks a million, and I will share my thoughts when I'm finished! :)

*Update* (14 Dec 2005): Reserved for crimson-tide as part of wishlist relay on BookRelay.com. TBR, then sent on!

This is a fantastic one from Jodi Picoult. I started reading this in bed, thinking I would read a couple of chapters and then off to sleep I would go. Bad move. I simply could not put down the book and it kept me awake till 5.30 am! Oh well, I could say I was waiting for Santa to arrive, hee hee hee. I was fascinated by the Amish culture; I hardly know anything about it, the limited knowledge I have is through an Oprah episode I saw during my uni days about the "running-around" years. I did find Katie's denial tedious at times but I guess it was integral to the story. I think the one main flaw was the ending. I had already made that conclusion/guess about a quarter way through the book but I reckon it shouldn't have been spelt out like that. Part of the mystery was there was no definite version of what happened and while I'm usually the person who just wants to be told what exactly happened, I thought page 499 was the perfect ending. Having the abrupt closure ruined the book slightly, IMHO, which is why I couldn't rate this book the perfect 10. Still, it was a compelling read and I'm looking forward to other Jodi Picoult novels. This book is reserved for crimson-tide and I will send it on to her shortly! Thanks again, Fleebo, for the RABCK, happy holidays and best wishes for the new year! :)

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing off to crimson-tide as this was on her wishlist, and also as part of "My Favourite Relay! Cliff1976 Reverse Wishlist Relay" on BookRelay.com. This is heading out via a prepaid Express Post satchel, enjoy! :)

Arrived safely today in my post box as part of the "My Favourite Relay! Cliff1976 Wish List Reverse Book Relay".
Thanks leeny37.

On loan to purple-fire.

Back with me now, and on the very overloaded tbr shelf.

Hmm.... I admit that Picoult is a very polished storyteller and I can see why she has a huge following and market out there. But I'm afraid I'm not a part of it. It was an easy, enjoyable enough read, though not a 'page turner' for me. And some aspects of the plot development were not believable. It also wasn't the sort of book that will stay with me. The bit I enjoyed most was learning about the Amish way of life and their views on a few things (I'm sure her research is well done and accurate). So OK while it lasted, but I won't be actively searching out more.

Given to a non BookCrossing friend.