Books › The Plain Truth
The Plain Truth
480 pages
A tense, emotionally layered exploration of a closed community where modern justice collides with ancient faith and devastating secrets.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a quiet, snow-muffled landscape that hides a deep, unsettling tension. It unfolds at a steady, deliberate pace, balancing the sharp, analytical edge of a legal procedural with the intimate, hushed atmosphere of a closed community. The narrative asks you to sit in the uncomfortable gray areas of morality, faith, and motherhood, peeling back layers of cultural misunderstanding to reveal the raw human desperation underneath. The prose is accessible yet richly detailed, grounding you in the tactile realities of farm life while navigating complex emotional terrain. It is a deeply empathetic, thought-provoking experience that will captivate readers who crave issue-driven dramas where the courtroom battles are secondary to the profound, often heartbreaking mysteries of the human heart.
- Mood
- tense
- insular
- somber
- hushed
- Tone
- earnest
- empathetic
- inquisitive
- serious
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- culture clash · weight of secrets · maternal sacrifice · faith versus justice · community expectations
- The writing
- Accessible and detail-oriented, blending sharp legal procedural language with evocative descriptions of a quiet, insular world.
- The arc
- Moves from shocking alienation and judgment to profound, complicated empathy and a bittersweet understanding of sacrifice.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love morally complex, issue-driven dramas that explore the gray areas of human behavior and the intricacies of closed communities.
Content notes
- infanticide
- death of a baby
- pregnancy and childbirth trauma
- religious shunning
About the book
From the bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper comes the riveting story of a murder that shatters the picturesque calm of Amish country -- and tests the heart and soul of the lawyer defending the woman at the center of the storm.
The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn's mother, took the child's life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide -- and for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own. Delving deep inside the world of those who live "plain," Ellie must find a way to reach Katie on her terms. And as she unravels a tangled murder case, Ellie also looks deep within -- to confront her own fears and desires when a man from her past reenters her life.
Description from Open Library.
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