Trial and Error by Robert Whitlow is a Christian Legal thriller. This is the first book that I have read by this author and I enjoyed it very much. The author did a great job in laying out the foundation and characters so that you feel like you have gotten to know them throughout the book. Buddy was a teen dad. He becomes a father at a young age. However shortly after his daughter's birth the child's mother takes off with her and disappears. This has affected Buddy greatly. He builds a career on tracking down missing children. He becomes highly recommended by a long time friend who is now working as a clerk at the courthouse. He also is well known in the small Georgia town. While Buddy is not only searching for his client's children - he is also searching for his daughter. He takes on a case of a runaway teen girl. The runaway girl shares a birthday with his missing daughter. You will see a journey of Buddy trying to help the girl's parents try and find her before she is lost forever. They feel like she is possibly trafficked. The author writes clues so that you can help solve the mystery also.
I received a copy of this book through the JustRead book tour program. All thoughts are my own.

Blair “Buddy” Smith, a successful lawyer, has a reputation for assisting parents with missing children, because of his own experience with his daughter, Elise. She was born while Buddy and Amber were still in high school, and soon after Elise’s birth, Amber and the baby left town. Stunned and hurt, Buddy spent seventeen years searching for his daughter, and always coming up empty. Taking a referral from a friend, Buddy enlisted the help of the local police to find a young boy abducted by his father, and then Reagan, a local teenaged girl went missing, whose father Buddy met seventeen years before, in the waiting room at the hospital when Elise was born.

Gracie Blaylock loved her role as the girls’ softball coach, starting and ending each practice with prayer. Upon learning one of her girls had disappeared, Gracie is determined to do whatever she can to help, helping Buddy and Mayleah, the detective locate Reagan, as well as help Buddy find Elise. Though Gracie plans on being nothing more than a good friend to Buddy, she has difficulty hiding her growing feelings for him, all the while afraid he doesn’t share them.

I liked Trial and Error, and appreciated the confidence of the faith in Jesus the characters possessed. Gracie’s willingness to pray for her girls, her friends, and for resolution of difficult situations was admirable and inspirational. Buddy’s determination to locate his daughter, and because of that, his desire to help other parents in similar situations, demonstrated his strength of character. This was an interesting story with several twists that proved to be an enjoyable read.

Trial and Error by Robert Whitlow was my first book by this author. I felt it was a well done legal thriller with plenty of suspense and drama to keep you reading. I didn’t know it was Christian legal thriller mystery but it was a perfect fit for the story. I highly recommend it and will most likely read more from this author.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

Readers first meet 18-year-old Buddy Smith sitting in a hospital waiting room in Milton county, GA. Buddy anxiously awaits his daughter Elise’s arrival, connecting with her was important. Little did he know after that day she would go missing.

Buddy tried to track down the whereabouts of his daughter. All the leads had dried up years ago. He went away to law school, came back home to keep a close eye on his mom. Sadly, Buddy was losing hope of ever finding Elise until one day he makes a discovery that changes everything.

Gracie grew up with Buddy and became the first female clerk of court in a small southern town where the community valued familiarity over the unknown (it can be a good thing and a bad thing) Both, Buddy and Gracie have a passion for helping parents find their missing children. Buddy had a soft spot for clients whose children were kidnapped by a parent he says, “To wrongfully deprive a deserving parent of the right to be with his/or her child was inexcusable.”

This story strolls along as the author shows readers around a small town in GA introducing them to its surrounds and people. This is not a fast-paced legal thriller but one that gets readers emotionally vested and connected to the characters and their situations. I enjoyed sitting alongside Gracie and friends on the porch and indulging in hot peach cobbler (it sounded yummy!). This is a cozy drama with an interesting cast of characters I enjoyed hanging out with.

A sweet romance is intertwined in the story as Buddy and Grace track down clues to find missing kids. I enjoyed seeing the transformation of Buddy as he lets go of his past and finds a deep faith, he never knew was possible. I like how the author shows this personal aspect of faith without it being preachy or making the reader feel alienated.


The author focuses themes of family, justice, not giving up on fighting the good fight, and how faith plays into it all. The natural faith element is seen through Gracie and Buddy’s mother’s eyes. They support one another in prayer. I liked how the author gives a peek into Gracie’s prayer life and what she does with her prayer journal. Readers see Gracie marking down prayer requests and then write the date a prayer is answered (even if it’s years later). It was fun to see Gracie coaching a girl’s baseball league. This is an inspiring, tender story that will warm your heart.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have received a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins!
The Book Club Network blog www.bookfun.org

“If I’m honest about it, my life has been a succession of trials and errors—a lot of false starts, wrong turns, and dead ends.”

“To wrongfully deprive a deserving parent the right to be with his or her child was inexcusable.”

“Everybody tries to work through the difficult things in life in their own way.”

This was a good book by Robert Whitlow. It kept my interest at the beginning, dragged a bit in the middle, but then picked up again in the last quarter. Whitlow does a great job creating Milton County and a lot of the fleshed out characters within it. There were good dynamics between Buddy, Gracie, and Mayleigh. I also thought Beatrice and Judge Williams were interesting characters. The storyline kept my attention as Buddy and the gang are not only searching for a missing teenager but he is also searching for his infant daughter that went missing about 18 years earlier. And as always, there are a lot of faith aspects and this one focused a lot on prayer.

My only complaint is that I felt like there were some unresolved parts of the story. Not sure if some of this was just red herrings or Robert Whitlow didn’t think they were important to come back and address. I also thought there could have been some editing done to help the middle part that dragged a little.

But all in all, it was a good read. Just not as good as A Time To Stand.

* I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley and Thomas Nelson. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

I loved this engrossing story! The mystery kept me intrigued and guessing. There was just enough romance for it to hit that sweet spot of balance between suspense and romance, also. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense/mystery.

Buddy Smith built his law practice around tracking down missing children. After all, he knows the agony of being separated from a child. Not long after his daughter’s birth, her mother ran away and Buddy never saw either one again. Gracie Blaylock has known Buddy her entire life, and now that she is clerk of court for the county, their paths cross frequently. When Gracie hears that a teenager in town has gone missing, she knows Buddy is the one for the case..

I am definitely a fan of Robert Whitlow’s books. After the last two of his books which were set in the Middle East he has now returned to the south for this one. And he is pointed out to us what can be happening around the corner without us even knowing about it. Especially with the younger generation we spend a great deal of their time on their computers and on social media.

Mr. Whitlow also demonstrated in this book a couple of things that I thought we were very timely. One had to do with discipleship which has been something that has been prominent in my life recently. Gracie spent a great deal of time discipling not only the sports team but also she was willing to spend time with Buddy. Not only did she spend time with him in discussion and prayer but she took him to church with her. She wasn’t afraid of being spurned by someone she had known all of her life. And Mr. Whitlow demonstrated how discipleship can build on itself.

I would like to think the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my copy of this book. The comments are my own.

This book had it all:
What an amazing book! I loved that it was compelling with just the right amount of intrigue, drama, faith and romance. True to style, Robert Whitlow draws you in with the legal issues yet there are sufficient personal interest aspects to make it feel fresh and relatable. It mostly took place outside of the courtroom which I thought made a nice change from some of this author's other legal dramas. I really enjoyed the mystery surrounding the missing children and found myself intrigued as to how it would all play out.
This book was complex and I liked the drama and various issues that the characters had to work through. I particularly found Gracie's strong Christian faith inspiring, especially her prayer journal and steadfast dedication towards lifting issues before the Lord.
All-in-all a great book and I look forward to seeing what this talented author is going to come up with next!
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

I've read one other novel by Robert Whitlow in the past and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so after reading the premise for this one I was quite excited to pick it up. I have to admit to finishing with some mixed emotions though. The premise was interesting, and  as I was reading I truly wanted to know how things would work out, but there was "too much and too little" going on all at the same time.  There was so much going on that the author wasn't able to dig too deeply into any specific element before moving onto the next. It took away from the overall depth of the story and made things come easier than they should have just to keep things moving forward. I liked the story, and for the most part I liked the characters, but overall I needed more depth with a more focused plot. I'd still read another book from this author in the future (especially since I liked the other one so much), but this one wasn't a personal favorite for me. I would highly recommend checking out some other reviews as well, since there are others that absolutely loved it as well. 

*I received a copy of this book through JustRead Tours. Thoughts and opinions expressed are mine alone.

This is a legal thriller that is full of wonderful faith-filled characters.
About the Book:
Buddy Smith is an attorney in Milton County in Georgia whose specialty is tracking down missing children. This is close to his heart because when he was a high school senior he had a daughter, Elise and she and her mother, Amber left town when Elise was an infant never to be found.
Buddy never gives up looking for her and the trail heats up after Buddy finds some disturbing paperwork from Buddy’s deceased Dad.
Buddy is also working on other cases...a child kidnapped by his father and a runaway teenager make up more of Buddy’s caseload.
The case of the runaway teenager, Reagan Landry, pulls at Clerk of Court, Gracie Blaylock’s heart strings as she has coached the teen in fast pitched softball.
Buddy and Gracie along with new detective, Mayleah Harkness, work alongside to find to answers and missing kids.

My Thoughts:
There is so much that I love about this book!
I love the southern feel of this book- Brunswick Stew (one of my favorite foods), fast pitched softball and a focus on faith are all elements that I can relate to!

It was fascinating to learn about what the Clerk of Court’s responsibilities include and other aspects of the court and legal systems like visiting judges and parameters for detectives.

The secondary characters were all so richly woven into the story-from Buddy’s mom who kept the most wonderful prayer notebooks to a visiting retired judge and his pet bird, Baliff and Gracie’s sister, Lauren, who is trying to help Gracie find her soulmate through a dating site.

I highly, highly recommend this book! It was a different feel than a normal legal thriller that I usually read but the multifaceted plot, characters and setting all really clicked to make this a great read for me!
Thank you @netgalley for the chance to read and honestly give my thoughts

3.5 Stars
Within the last year, I discovered a genre that I’ve fallen in love with, Christian fiction. And I’ve always been a huge fan of legal thrillers, so I couldn’t wait to open Trial And Error since it is a combination of both. It started out quite interesting, so I settled down for a long read.

However, the more I read the more I became a little puzzled. This didn’t feel quite like other legal thrillers that I was familiar with. And it didn’t fit in with the Christian novels I’d been reading either.

We have Buddy, a lawyer with his own history, who is searching for his daughter. He takes mostly family law cases and of course missing children cases since he can relate to that type of loss.

The story is slow-paced as we learn about various aspects of Buddy’s life and high school days. The main story covers his personal case as he searches for his daughter and also a case regarding a local girl. Each progresses slowly and lots of space is allotted to relationships, especially Buddy’s mother and her new friendship with the visiting judge.

As far as the Christian element, this felt more prevalent than other books of this genre. It was far more than occasional Christian references, which for some, may make the book more enjoyable. For me, it felt somewhat intrusive.

In my opinion, this was more character-driven than a thrilling, suspenseful, page-turner. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not. Will I be reading more books by Whitlow? Without a doubt, since I absolutely love Legal Mysteries and Christian Fiction. But this particular book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion

Trial and Error, by Robert Whitlow, is a contemporary Christian mystery thriller that kept me reading to see what was going to happen. Buddy Smith is a lawyer who'd infant daughter and her mother went missing just after the child's birth. He has never given up on trying to find them. Now a young boy and a teen girl in towns goes missing and he takes on the cases to try to find them. Working with the county clerk of courts, Grace, and a new detective in town, Mayleah, they diligently work to find the missing girl.
This is such a good story. It is well written with strong characters. There are sensitive topics in this story, such as teen pregnancy, unwed mothers, child abduction and human trafficking. The author does a great job of writing the story without going into deep details. There are many good things that stand out to me in this story. I enjoyed the strong faith and the importance of prayer in the lives of Grace and Buddy's mother. Another is the secret Buddy's father kept from Buddy and his mother and how it affected their lives.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

Suspenseful, intriguing, and makes readers cheer for the protagonist!

Eighteen years ago, Buddy Smith’s girlfriend skipped town with their newborn daughter and he hasn’t found them since. Now a defense lawyer back in his hometown, he often takes cases where one of the parents has fled with a child.

Gracie Blaylock is the county clerk and coach of the local girls’ softball team. She and Buddy have been friends for years, but never had a romantic aspect to their relationship. When one of the girls on the softball team abruptly stops attending practice, the other teammates know that something is wrong and confirm that she has runaway. She knows it’s not the same as an abduction case but feels that Buddy would be best to pursue it.

As Buddy and Gracie work together to find out what happened to the missing girl, clues start to show up that could lead Buddy to find his own estranged daughter.

Robert Whitlow has such a great ability to blend faith, suspense, and legality into his stories. It’s easy to get lost in the story, even when there is not much of a legal thriller aspect. With cases of parents abducting their own child on the rise, this book fits right in for current times. I love the rural small-town Georgia setting to this book. It made me to want to have porch conversations with some of the main characters. I also loved all the characters throughout this book. Everyone contained some sort of flaw that was able to improve through the course of the book. Gracie is such a role model for me, similar to other characters he has written. No one took a step backwards and it worked out for the better by the end. We need more books like this in our library today! I’ve always loved his writing and will continue to read his books!

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

I have never read a legal thriller, and to tell the truth, this genre didn't really interest me. However, when I saw that more reviewers were needed for Trial and Error, and noticed that the author had also written a book that my daughter really enjoyed, I decided to try it out. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book!
Buddy hasn't seen his daughter Elise since she was a few days old. The baby's mother, Amber, simply disappeared, and though he searched for 18 years, Buddy couldn't find her. Now, another girl, Reagan, has disappeared from the town, and Buddy is determined to find her—as well as a little boy whose father took off with him without the mother's permission. How many of the three children will Buddy be able to find? Can he keep up the search and still complete all the duties he must, as a lawyer? What will he do about his attraction to the new detective? And then, he finds some mysterious canceled checks in a box in his mother's basement—how do they fit into the mystery?
Gracie Blaylock loves her job as Clerk of the Court, and she is good at it. She also loves coaching the girls' softball team. However, she is worried about Reagan, who suddenly dropped out of the team. She is praying fervently for Reagan's safety and return home—and also for Jackie, the missing little boy. When Buddy's search for Elise shows up in her prayer calendar, she mentions to the lawyer that she prayed for him—and he tells her about the new clues that have just surfaced. Suddenly, Gracie finds herself involved in the search for the missing girls.
I found myself quite engrossed in Trial and Error. The story of the searches for the missing children, Buddy's personal quest for meaning in his life, Gracie's prayer life and her half-hearted search for a soul-mate to share life with (pushed on by her sister who was sure that Gracie needed to sign up on an online dating site), and Mayleah's dilemma about her ex-husband who wanted to make things right between them all made for a wonderfully-complicated plot. I liked it a lot! If you enjoy mild thrillers, without too much heart-stopping action, like I do, this might be a good choice for you. I appreciated that, although there was a small element of romance, there was never any kissing or even hand-holding. That's my kind of romance!
I received a free copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.
WARNING: Prostitution and drug abuse are alluded to, and sex trafficking is mentioned.

Trial and Error keeps you guessing in this mystery of missing girls, past and present. Robert Whitlow uses suspense in an intriguing way as well as Christian values to inspire readers to appreciate his works.

In the book Trial and Error, author Robert Whitlow follows Gracie Blaylock as she enlists the help of long-time friend Buddy Smith to find a missing teenage girl. Through the process and searching, Buddy’s past and search for his own daughter begin a spiritual awakening in his life.
This is a great read with excellent characters. It was a bit slow at times but the message of the book is great! I would highly recommend this book. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Blair Smith, AKA Buddy, an attorney in Milton County, Georgia, had spent his adult life searching for the daughter he hadn't seen since she was an infant, now a seventeen-year-old young woman. This pursuit of his daughter and her mother, his high school girlfriend, had led him to assist parents whose children had been taken by their non-custodial parent. Now it had also led him to assist in locating a runaway girl who shared his daughter's birthday, and who was likely being trafficked. This intense, emotional story also delves into the importance and power of a life of prayer, and encourages perseverance even after years of praying.

While this story did progress a little slowly at times, it did build in intensity. I would recommend it to those who enjoy contemporary fiction or legal fiction. I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of Trial and Error from Thomas Nelson via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Trial and Error is a standalone legal thriller featuring lawyer Buddy Smith and set in Milton County, Georgia. The story opens with 18 year old Buddy sitting in Milton County Memorial Hospital waiting as his girlfriend, Amber Melrose, gives birth. Their relationship was rocky, to say the least, and they had broken up twice during her pregnancy; he was at the hospital despite Amber not wanting him there, hence he was banished to the father's waiting area. The baby is a girl who they name Elise. Fast forward and Buddy is meeting with a client - Sue Ellen Ford - whose husband, Jackie Ford Sr, had left 3 days ago with their 3 year old child Jackson Ford Jr and Sue cannot get in touch with them. Referred to Buddy by county clerk and friend Gracie Blaylock, Sue asks for Buddy's help to get her abducted son back where he belongs. The reason Buddy takes on cases of domestic kidnapping, where one parent refuses to share custody and so flees with the child, is due to the fact that Amber, not long after giving birth, had left town with their baby girl 18 years ago and Buddy has never stopped searching for them since. When he discovers his late father had been giving them money he feels even more anxious to locate them.

Specialising in domestic abduction and missing persons, Buddy is the first port of call for many when the police aren't interested or a case has gone cold. Another case comes up regarding the disappearance of Reagan Landry, daughter of Sammy and Crystal, whom Buddy met in the father's room at the hospital all those years prior, as 18 year old Reagan had been born around the same time as his baby girl, Elise. Reagan had stopped attending her usual softball practice two weeks ago and everyone is concerned. Despite having just taken on the Ford case, Buddy wants to help but decides that the new detective in town, Mayleah Harkness, should be involved too. Can Buddy, Gracie and Mayleah locate the missing girls? Will Buddy ever find his daughter? This is a compelling and absorbing read from start to finish and the issue of domestic abduction is thoroughly explored. With plenty of unexpected twists, intrigue and mystery, and enough misdirection to really keep you guessing, Whitlow has penned another engrossing legal tale. The characters are intricately developed each with a distinct personality. This allowed me to become invested in them and eager to know how everything would turn out for them. Recommended to those who prefer slow-burn and less gritty thrillers.

Although I’m a big fan of legal thrillers—I’ve read everything Randy Singer has ever offered and am currently working my way through John Grisham’s oeuvre—I had only read a couple of Robert Whitlow novels, and none recently. I decided to remedy that with Trial and Error and the end result is a little bit like the title.

I’m not sure that I’d classify Trial and Error as a legal thriller. A lawyer is the main character and there are some scenes in a courtroom before a judge, but it’s mostly a series of interlocking stories about finding lost children. Buddy, our lawyer and protagonist, works primarily in the field of finding runaways, dealing with domestic kidnappings, and other sorts of family law. In Trial and Error, Buddy is dealing with two cases—one involving a kidnapping and one involving a runaway—and working on his own personal case.

Personally, Buddy is trying to track down his high school girlfriend and their daughter. Shortly after the baby’s birth when they were both seventeen, Amber took off with the baby and hasn’t been seen in seventeen years. When Buddy discovers that his late father had given money to Amber throughout the years, it serves as the catalyst he needs to track her down.

This was a storyline that had a lot of possibility for substance and nuance, but I didn’t feel like Whitlow explored it as thoroughly as he should have. The story is too straightforward, too easy, and the various characters never consider the implications of Buddy suddenly showing up. All these are handwaved away in favor of a happily-ever-after reconciliation that’s just too easy to be satisfying.

The other two stories involve a kidnapping where a father has left suddenly with his son and a runaway that have been lured into trafficking. Any one of these stories could have consumed a whole novel, but Whitlow jumps back and forth dipping a toe into each story without really giving readers a robust look at the whole. In particular, the runaway/sex trafficking storyline is all superficially handled and has little suspense value. It leads to the book’s biggest twist, but in a rather contrived, inorganic way. The only value to the kidnapping storyline, which is again easily resolved, is to set up the visiting judge as an arrogant curmudgeon. (No worries, that character flaw is also resolved easily.)

There’re hints of romance and major elements of faith. Again, there’s little conflict and everything is resolved easily. I enjoyed the characters. I enjoyed their story arcs. But the lack of obstacles as they moved along those arcs left the story with little suspense or believability. I’ll give Whitlow another shot in the future, but this one wasn’t for me.

“Trial and Error” by Robert Whitlow was a definite page turner. A story of second chances and forgiveness.
Buddy, a small-town lawyer is searching for his daughter for eighteen years. Now another girl turns up missing and Buddy is determined to find them with the help of Mayleah, a new detective in town and long-time friend, Gracie.
The power of God’s restoration is throughout the story as well as the power of prayer. The story is well written, and the author tackles hard topics like human trafficking.
I received a copy of the book from Just Read Tours and the publisher in exchange for an honest opinion. All opinions are my own.