The first thing to come to mind when considering James Scott Bell's, SINS OF THE FATHERS is a simple three-word phrase:

"Better Than Grisham"

I can say this because of my sister's ardent fascination with the legal thriller writer and her sharing of many of those same books with me. I have enjoyed what I have read of his work. The movies made of his books never disappoint. It is a definitive fact John Grisham knows how to craft a good story.

Where James Scott Bell surpasses him is in the substantive depth of the characters and the multiple subplots emanating from each of those characters' lives. These people (major, as well as minor) all carry a voice, distinct to themselves, I could hear in my head as I read their words. SINS OF THE FATHERS is indeed one of those rare treats in literature where basically all required of the reader is simply to turn the pages and recognize the words. The characters tell their story all by themselves.

On the surface, it is a relatively simple tale to tell. Thirteen-year-old Darren DiCinni has fired a rifle into a kids' baseball game, killing five of the young players and one adult coach. The public is out for blood. They want justice to run its natural course and punish this boy for his crime. Prosecutor Leon Colby, anticipated to run for District Attorney in the next elections, is a hard-nosed lawyer (former college football player) who promises the justice they crave. There will be no loopholes allowing this killer to escape the law.

Lindy Field, assigned to the boy as his defense, realizes, as a lawyer, the most judicious thing for her to do here is make some type of a deal with Prosecutor Colby. There is no contesting whether or not Darren actually committed the murders. She knows he did. Yet she also knows what awaits him if he is sent off to prison. It is an environment in which the boy would never survive.

Personally, she is also invested in this thirteen-year-old kid, as another boy she is not willing to lose -- like the younger brother she lost to the insane drunken rage of her father, and seventeen-year-old client, Marcel Lee, whom she lost to a criminal justice system she believed failed him when it accepted dubious testimony from characters a court normally would be able to trust..

So what can she do in such a no-win situation? The only avenue any defense attorney has in their bin, the insanity defense. However, as that approach begins to falter and crumble at Colby's hardened approach to justice, and the public seeking Darren's head turns her into the local pariah, Lindy, with her investigator and best friend Roxy Raymond, begins to discover this case is more than simply a kid shooting up a baseball field of kids. There is more involved here than anyone knows, and much less anyone wants to let on.

SINS OF THE FATHERS is an excellent read for many reasons, one of the most subdued being the absence of a villain -- at least not out front where everyone can see, which is the true nature of evil. It hides in the dark corners, slithering around waiting for someone to strike. Its effects are clear -- the boy, Darren, kills -- but its origins are hidden. Such is what Lindy must find.

Some would argue that Darren DiCinni is the villain. He is a murderer, a boy or not, and now he must pay the consequences. The beauty of Bell's work in this regard is he does not ignore that perspective. Mona Romney was the mother of eleven-year-old Matthew, one of the boy's Darren killed. She is driven to the edge of her sanity, falling into a personal rage when she sees Darren's defense not succumb to the justice prosecutor Leon Colby is trying to force. For her, it's all a given. Darren killed her boy Matthew. Now he must pay. One can authentically feel for this woman and the trauma she suffers through losing her child in such a horrific manner.

While SINS OF THE FATHERS carries a superb plot, never predictable and always believable, the root causes of all that happens here is a story to invest your time in not simply on the basis of the pervasive theme.

What is one to do when children commit such abominable acts of crime? How young is too young, and at what age does one recognize the different between right and wrong?

No, SINS OF THE FATHERS is a book to spend your time and money on because Bell creates real people, with all their sins and fears, heroic people (which is what Lindy Field, Leon Colby, and Mona Romney become in those circumstances) to live what we hope we never, ever have to live and pray never, ever are forced to face.

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