A story of a boy and his relationship with his father. I think I would place this in the coming of age category, although it is not entirely a coming of age story. It is also a story of privilege, power, corruption and also about racism and exploitation. It was perhaps a little slow starting, but the book culminates in a wonderful trial scene - albeit one I found harder to take entirely seriously since reading "Tom Sawyer - Detective".

The trial read well, keeping you involved much like one of those ones on TV. But I also wondered, as I read, whether the American court system is really riddled with all these things that seem stereotypical now. Do lawyers "object" to every other sentence for instance? Are cross examinations really so brief? For that matter, is the term "caucasian" really used for white people?!

But the answer to all these questions might be - in fact is likely to be - yes. So I am not faulting the book on accuracy. Those were merely thoughts going through my mind because the trial read so much like every other trial scene I have watched or read. There is a twist in this trial of course - but even then it is not unusual to have such a twist - so my criticism of this book is merely that it did not entirely surprise me! But I did enjoy it and would still recommend it. ( )