Janeology
Non-series
Karen
Harrington
Kunati (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-60164-020-X (160164020X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60164-020-8 (9781601640208)
Publication Date: April 2008
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Jane, a loving mother of two, has drowned her toddler
son and is charged with his murder in this powerful examination of
love, loss, and family legacy. When a prosecutor decides Jane's husband
Tom is partially to blame for the death and charges him with "failure
to protect," Tom's attorney proposes a radical defense. He plans to
create reasonable doubt about his client's alleged guilt by showing
that Jane's genealogy is the cause of her violence, and that she
inherited her latent violence in the same way she might inherit a
talent for music or a predisposition to disease. He argues that no one
could predict or prevent the tragedy, and that Tom cannot be held
responsible.
With the help of a woman gifted with the power of
retrocognition—the ability to see past events through objects
once owned by the deceased—the defense theory of dark biology
takes form. An unforgettable journey through the troubled minds and
souls of eight of Jane's ancestors, spanning decades and continents,
this debut novel deftly illustrates the ways nature and nurture weave
the fabric of one woman's life, and renders a portrait of one man left
in its tragic wake.
Review:
Karen Harrington takes the reader on a most unusual literary adventure
in her
debut novel, Janeology.
Marketed as a legal thriller it is really
neither (in the conventional sense) but rather a series of fascinating,
though often deeply disturbing, vignettes that taken together form a
remarkable tale.
From all outward appearances, Tom and Jane lead a typical suburban
family life, he a college professor, she a homemaker raising toddler
twins. But one day Tom receives word at work that he urgently needs to
return home accompanied by a police officer. He arrives to find his
wife has tried to kill both their children, and has succeeded with one
leaving the other in critical condition. Her only comment: I'm done
with being a mother. Jane is subsequently tried for murder but
acquitted on the reason of temporary insanity and confined to a
hospital. The prosecutor in the case then decides Tom is to be charged
with child endangerment and neglect, that somehow he must have known
Jane was capable of murder and he didn't take any steps to prevent it.
The lawyer Tom's mother hires to defend him, Dave Frontella, proposes a
novel counterargument, that Jane was genetically predisposed to
violence. "Jane snapped because generations of cold-blooded,
impulse-driven genes were ready to erupt within her. Her predilection
for sudden violence was inherited like diabetes or a gift for music."
Toward this end, Dave employs a woman with the gift of retrocognition,
the ability to see the past through an object in the present, and
together they discover that Jane's ancestors may hold the key to Tom's
defense.
Some readers, maybe most, are likely to be skeptical of the premise of Janeology. But what
works in the book's favor is that Tom is equally skeptical, and
repeatedly says so. The ancestral tales, however, are wonderfully
written and oddly compelling, so much so that at just about the same
time Tom comes around, the reader will as well. At one point he says,
"A new thread on Jane's father's side of her family was about to be
woven and I braced myself for the yarn, welcoming the stories now with
an open mind and a greater enthusiasm for the journey the three of us
were taking." And this is about the same time where it's nearly
impossible to put this book down.
Janeology
concludes with what can best be described (in a somewhat oxymoronic
fashion) as ambiguous closure for both Tom and the reader that, upon
reflection, is perfectly apt. This is truly a unique and memorable book.
Special thanks to Karen Harrington for providing a copy of Janeology for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Omnimystery keywords for Janeology ...
Location(s) referenced: Galveston, Texas.
