What I anticipated to be a page-turning tale of an 80-year-old lawyer who has taken on the defense of a fundamentalist Christian mother accused of murder by abuse in the death of her adopted Ethiopian daughter, turned into a rather memoir-like retrospection of life and literature. Based loosely on the death of a child in Sedro Wooley Washington in the Skagit Valley I ended up skimming most of the later third of the book.

A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Through no fault of it's own, I did not enjoy this novel, yet feel compelled to give it three stars due to the quality of writing and the fact that my dislike is based primarily on emotion. In fact, I'm honestly not sure why I requested this ARC. The topic sounded compelling and as I had not read the author, I was curious. I was also intrigued by the legal component. That said, I'm also fully aware that child abuse is one of my just can't read about it topics (give me a serial killer any day.) And, the fact that one of my beloved nephews is an Ethiopian adoptee - way to close to home. Definitely some triggering content here for a number of readers, so a word of caution.

The Final Case by David Guterson was so disturbing, I took a break before writing a review. It wasn't that the crime was the worst I ever read about. It was that this child was so abandoned by everyone that should have raised a voice to help this child or stop these parents.
Although a real case took place, this is a work of fiction. As a reader, you know that something bad is going to happen, but keep hoping someone will step up. This book is a page-turner. Mr. Guterson is a master at creating a scene and playing emotions.

I gave a starred review of this book for Booklist.

"What defines a meaningful life? The narrator of this searching and languid novel looks to his father as exhibit A. While the narrator’s own existence “clearly smacked now of bourgeois retirement,” he finds inspiration in his 84-year-old Dad, a criminal attorney who is readying for what he suspects will be his final case. In 2011, an Ethiopian girl adopted by a family in Skagit County, Washington, died of hypothermia. Guterson (Problems with People, 2014) fictionalizes this real-life tragedy to fuel the initial momentum for this deeply reflective novel. The details of what emerges as a horrific child abuse case are unsettling and made even more so by the sudden shift of gears to the narrator’s life once Dad’s involvement in the trial ends. The abrupt change of perspective feels disorienting but provides effective ballast for the rest of the story. The looping writing—one of the sentences is 243 words long—demands attention and a slower pace, deepening the novel’s impact. Guterson includes a quote from Okakura Kakuzō’s classic, The Book of Tea: “Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.” A touching reminder to find beauty in the mundane despite the relentless crush of the horrific."

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. This book, although it contains courtroom scenes, is not a legal fiction. Rather, this book is written in a style of memoir, stream-of-consciousness, and meandering. The book was a tribute to David Guterson's father, Murray, and from what I've read around, was Royal. What happened to Abigail was horrific. But, I did not agree with the basic legal premise of this book, which is that Royal defends Betsy in a trial. There was a key scene missing before the trial happened, which would have tied the entire book together and would have made it legally sound. That scene was Betsy refusing to accept a plea deal ... or even, no plea deal was on the table. Royal, in his opening statement to the jury, admits that Betsy committed all the lesser charges of neglect, abuse, etc., but the DA wouldn't take the manslaughter (I forgot the exact charge) off the table, so they went to trial. I added a star for the beautiful prose, albeit with the never ending word vomit that went with it.

I so wanted to like this one, but it seemed slightly disorganized. I loved Snow Falling on Cedars. But I’d definitely read his next book still.

It wasn't till I was a few pages into this that I realized that the evil parents about whom the novel revolves are "spare-the-rod" Christians. I quit right then because I know something of these people and I believe that we as a society have the duty to forbid these practices, arrest, convict and imprison people who practice them. Parental rights be damned. Anyway, I did not want any additional images in my brain so I did not read.

The narrator is a fiction writer who is on a hiatus from writing. His father, 84 yr old, is an attorney whose final case is defending a woman who did 'the deed'. There is the pre-trial and then the trial. The son is his father's driver as he has time. The non-writing son describes the death of the adoptive girl and the how it all happens from his research and assisting his dad, his being in the courtroom for the event.
David Guterson has a way with words, quotes from other authors.

I very much enjoyed the first two thirds of this novel. The writing style is comfortable and fluid; much like a friend telling you an anecdote. During the last third the story digresses to the point of boredom; as if your friend became distracted by the television in the middle of the story they were telling. The characters were realistic and relatable even though there was never a real in-depth look into anyone in particular.

I wanted to like this one. There are ordinary moments as we meander through life that this author has a true knack of reflecting. There were such moments in this story BUT the pacing suffered in a number of places as the author (through is character) muses on life, seemingly loses focus on the story he is telling (granted this is my opinion, perhaps not others). This vignette is drawn around a character, an author who is not writing, who ends up driving his elderly father to his final case. You are drawn to this introspective man who seems to see so many angles of a story "at a remove", and oddly, to the situation of father driving son, because he simply quietly enjoys spending time with his father, he wants to help out. The father is defending a woman who is unabashedly scum but he is trying to argue that the charge does not fit the crime. There is no anger or recrimination in his defense, it is as if he is telling a tale that he knows better than others and needs the court to notice this. After the father's death, the son wanders into a teahouse drama and then comes back into the story with some of my favorite lines from this book, "My father's tomb did not go unvisited. It was conveniently located in my writer's garret, and I visited it like a watchman at first, then like a voyeur, and, finally, like a researcher drawn restively to archives." Beautiful. And that line in Adeba's essay, "And here they do it through a closet door." Chills. The ending does tie up the lingering family case drama. However, if you are a person who enjoys a cleverly paced story, this is NOT the tale for you.

Thank you to #NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to preview the read.

I loved this book. The gentle decency of the father and his insistence on justice reminded me of my own father and his insistence that everyone deserves a defence. The story is gut-wrenching and leaves you mourning Abeba long after you are finished reading.

Intertwined in this amazing literary novel set in Seattle is a powerful criminal court case involving child abuse of by a strict deeply religious Christian family of their adopted daughter from Ethiopia; a family memoir with reflections on the complex, loving relationships between son, mother, father, sister, and wife that verge on poetic glimpses; and a deep reflection by the author about being a novelist in the guise of the fictional novelist telling the story.

The adoptive family, the Harveys, embody the worst of the far Christian right. They often go off on extremist tirades about government cabals, conspiracies, hatred of all minorities who they believe have ruined America for whites, Biblical pronouncements from a husband’s natural dominance over a wife to child punishment, and child protective services being out to get them. They increasingly and harrowingly punish their adopted Ethiopian daughter for her lack of obedience. They have no regrets or apologies for their actions, only a blazing religious self-righteousness. Turns out the Harvey’s own children, once moved into protective care, have post-traumatic stress disorder from their parent’s tortuous demands for perfection and total compliance, as well as harsh discipline.

The narrator is a once successful novelist who has written anything in a decade. His 83-year-old Dad, Royal, is a renown and mostly retired criminal defense attorney who continues to take on pro bono assignments out of dedication to the system, rather than any loyalty to the mostly guilt defendants he ends up representing. Capturing a generation who worked hard, the aging Dad carries his cereal, bowl, and spoon with him every day -- going out to buy milk and a banana and coffee to round breakfast out. His son takes on the role of chauffeur, as his Dad can no longer drive safely, chief investigator, and life chronicler. His side-by-side interactions with his Dad infuse him with reflections that clearly become the base for his new novel, which seems to be this novel we’re reading.

The book rings so true to what seems to be Guterson’s life as a novelist, as well as a real criminal trial, that you cannot help but feel you’re being swept up into a powerful memoir lightly glazed as fiction. So much so, that the book had me scrambling to Google to find the parallels, which abound. Guterson grew up in Seattle during the 1990’s, his father as the dad in the novel was a locally celebrated criminal lawyer, he married his wife in 1979 and they home-schooled their children. There was a real child abuse murder case involving a girl who had been adopted with the same group in which Guterson and his wife adopted an Ethiopian girl. So the circumstances of her abuse resonated deeply, and Guterson followed closely the criminal trial of her adoptive parents.

Much of the narrator’s musing focus on the art and struggle of being a novelist. The narrator a stalled fiction writer, and this book in a diary format jump starts his novel writing. There are multiple encounters with has-been authors, aspirational but stalled novelists, and all tropes in between in the world of fiction writers. The narrator shares that as a novelist deciding which bits should make it into the final novel, “naturally my mind edited these variegated scribblings, pruning and grooming erratic dross.” There are musing about famous novelists and their sayings, from provocative one-liners that his sister posts on the chalkboard in her tea shop.

Such a moving, outstanding read- and worth the ten-year wait from the publication of Snow Falling on Cedars!

Thanks to Knopf DoubleDay and NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy of this book.

Long, verbose soliloquies that read like SAT vocabulary assignments for the purpose of the author expounding on social topics. It didn't read like a story to me, nor an essay, but a mix of both which didn't quite work. The author needed to pick one, story or essay, and really go with it.

And yet....

I didn't hate it, I almost liked it for smash up of genres that didn't work. It was different. I doubt that's what Guterson was going for, but that's what I got from it.

Those looking for a trial procedural should look elsewhere; there's not quite enough here to satisfy as it is plainly obvious the couple on trial is guilty and not enough trial machinations to push the plot into crime drama. I was led to believe by the book's synopsis that it would a courtroom drama, and was purchased with my John Grisham loving patrons in mind, but I won't be able to recommend this to them.

Special thanks to Know Doubleday Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This book had all the elements of a good book yet I wouldn't recommend it to like a reading group. The narrator who isn't named is telling about a case his elderly father took on as pro bono , probably because it was a trial on a married couple who murdered their adopted Ethiopian child so it was the narrator remarking about the trial he has a front row view of....the father got this case for lack of public defenders and I found the trial he's telling his son about riveting and its obvious the son respects his father, and it is a long drive. I liked the father/son interaction as well. It was a sad horrible case and the father is doing his very best to defend these parents, but the parents were abusive. It was very sad.

After this I was lost, the book took me on a journey of here and there and everywhere til I was completely wondering if I was reading the same book. Very strange. If the author just stayed with the first part or made it into a novella or short story i think it would've been a much better way to go here 3 stars was all I could muster up!

Brief summary: A young girl adopted from Ethiopia by a fringe Fundamentalist Christian family has died and there is evidence that she has been abused. An octogenarian attorney takes her case. He is no longer able to drive, so he enlists the help of his writer son who has given up writing.

Don’t approach this book expecting a riveting political thriller. Yes, there is a court case, but there are also observations of family, aging, perversion of religion, racism and the all too familiar attributes of our culture today that embrace permanent states of outrage or cling to conspiratorial thoughts. The author had a lot to say; a lot of “grist for the mill”. I’m not sure on a first reading that I got it all, for there is a veritable smorgasbord of food for thought in this novel.

I’ve thought about this book for quite some time. To my mind it essentially has three major themes. The first, and most touching , the relationship between a middle aged man and his octogenarian lawyer father, still imparting wisdom to his intellectual successful son. Their interaction, about life, the law, and clients is very incisive and touching.
The second,the saga of the orphaned Ethiopian child, the ordeal she suffered in Ethiopia, and the terrible things endured after her adoption and life here, culminating in her “homicide by abuse”. That this could happen here, in the USA, boggles the mind.

I wish Mr. Guterson had more of a north star when he wrote this book. It wandered about on rabbit trails and strayed from the narrative so frequently that, aside from the trial and the father/son relationship, I'd lose sight of the novel's direction and intent.

Royal is an 84 year old criminal attorney without a current case. His car isn't working and his son is driving him places. His sons was a novelist who has decided not to write anymore. "My life clearly smacked of bourgeois retirement." One day the phone rings in Royal's office and he is asked to take a case due to a shortage of public defenders. He accepts and this leads to the heart of the story. Royal's office is in Seattle and the courthouse is in Skagit. His son drives back and forth with Royal every day for the trial and they have time to deepen their relationship as well as work on aspects of the case together.

The case is horrendous and emotionally fraught. Abeba Temesgen is an Ethiopian child who was adopted by Delvin and Betsey Harvey. Both parents are fundamentalist Christians who thrive on conspiracy theories, racism, child discipline and hatred of "the system". The charge against them is the murder of Abeba due to child torture and abuse. She ultimately died of hypothermia after being made to stay outside the home during freezing weather without appropriate garments. She was not allowed back into the home until she apologized to Betsey for being disrespectful. Abeba was a strong and wonderfully willful child who wasn't about to give in despite her beatings and punishments. By the time Betsey went outside to check on Abeba, she had died.

I found the father/son relationship touching though not very developed. It is obvious that the son respects his father greatly and admires his life's work and the way he lived but I don't feel I really got to know either of them. Both are stressed, trying to cope with a child abuse trial that is difficult to get your head around. Royal is prepared to lose the case, believing that the parents are evil and no redemption is possible. Despite this belief, he is defending the parents as well as he can. "To tell you the truth, a lot of things in my work are sad. It's sort of a sad world to have to move around it."

It is obvious that Mr. Guterson is questioning the system that allows parents like the Harveys to adopt an Ethiopian child. The most riveting parts of the book were the testimonies of the Harvey children and the interview with Betsy's mother. The rage and vituperativeness that spilled from Betsey's mother's mouth made my jaw drop despite my realizing that many people believe as she does.

I wish I could recommend this book more heartily but it just didn't grab me. I don't know if a different editor could have made a difference. Ultimately, I don't think so. I believe the problem is that the author wasn't sure where he wanted to go with all this and so ended up in a circular conundrum without true direction.

An elderly lawyer takes on a final case where he defends a woman accused of murdering her adopted Ethiopian daughter which she had been abusing in the name of religion. Since the lawyer is unable to drive, his son acts as his chauffeur and documents the details of the case and his father's story.

The case itself was horrifying and painful to read about but riveting as well. Then the book veers off for a while into a bunch of other stuff about the lawyer which kind of lost my interest and made me wonder why the author was going into a bunch of random stuff. But the book eventually returns to the case so at least we find out what happened. It felt like this book wasn't sure what story it was telling.

David Guterson, The Final Case, Alfred A Knopf 2022.

Thank you NetGalley for this uncorrected proof for review.

How can my words, reviewing The final Case, aspire in any way to catch all the wonderful the ideas, phrases, characterisations and plot of this amazing novel? They cannot, but here is my attempt to encourage you to read and reread David Guterson’s latest work. Even ‘work’ is too harsh word for this story that flows so beautifully, that reflects so warmly on the central character’s relationship with his father, Royal, his mother, sister and wife; and that so succinctly tells us how stringently the law should be interpreted. The bleak story of Abeba, the Ethiopian girl named Abigail by the American couple who adopted her, is woven into this landscape, with razor-sharp commentary raised by the legal case in which not only the behaviour of individuals but the insidious impact and extent of ideologies are laid bare.

The Author’s note states that, although this is a work of fiction, he attended a trial in which the parents of a girl adopted from Ethiopia were tried in connection with her death by hypothermia.

The Final Case begins in the main character’s room in which he writes. This space is filled with his father’s boxed legal files, pile upon pile, recessing his windows, providing only tunnels to the light. He begins reading a file which introduces his father’s first case, his legal mind and commitment to ensuring that a defence should be raised for a person standing trial, and that, regardless of the work he undertook, he was unpaid.
As the narrative moves into Royal’s last trial, his son’s story of his difficulties in writing another novel becomes part of the story. His freedom from his own work gives him the time to become engrossed in his father’s last case: defending the mother of the Ethiopian girl adopted into a religious family with several biological children. The case, for Royal, ends with his death.

Although it takes time to become as engrossed in the continuing story as happened with the earlier revelations, it then becomes as enticing. The trial is left in abeyance, the reader having been told that it must begin anew after Royal’s death. There is now time to move away from the trial and Royal, and become immersed in the other narratives.

These are several. In the earlier part of the novel relationships are an important feature, and they remain so throughout. The moving glimpses into life in Ethiopia where a loving uncle has been forced to put his niece into an orphanage from where he is pleased to learn she will go to an American family contrast with the reality. The main character’s feelings about his own family, with the lovely pictures of an ageing father with his whimsical behaviour charted alongside his acute legal mind, and then his death are followed with stronger portraits of tea drinking moments in his sister’s café, and his marriage.

Importantly, and linking so sharply with current American politics is the portrayal of the adoptive family, their values and their right to a legal defence. The ramifications of adoption, the American Constitution and the type of protection it provides, together with the contrast of what might be considered an unsatisfactory life with a truly horrendous life are raised. The result of the trial and the Judge’s perceptive remarks, which resonate all too vividly with some of the commentary alive in current political debate, provides a satisfying end to the legal story.

As this is an uncorrected proof no quotes can be included in this review. However, Royal’s legal observations, and later the Judge’s commentary on the outcome of the case, are precise and thoughtful. They make an outstanding contribution to current debate over the legal ramifications of political events in America.
This is a novel that resonates with feeling and delightful vignettes of a family who are comfortable with each other and their differences. In contrast, a family which cannot allow lives to flourish beyond their consent, presents a horrific story that has wider implications than the one at the centre of Royal’s last case. This is a novel to be read and pondered. It is a real triumph.

I read the first 7% and I am certain this will go over well with our library patrons, an easy 4 stars for the right readers if it continues as it has.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.