The new book by David Guterson (Snow Falling On Cedars) is a legal thriller dealing with the death of an Ethiopian child adopted by a religious couple.

Not an easy read, but the writing is beautiful. The story follows a fiction writer who is helping his elderly father prepare a defense for the mother of the adopted child, who along with her husband, has been charged with the crime.

Parts of the book were very interesting, including the relationships between the son and his elderly parents. Also the family dynamics of the accused couple is also fascinating.

I am not sure that some readers will like this book as it is difficult to read in parts.

I was excited to read this new book by David Guterson. The premise interested me and the final case itself was well presented as a legal conundrum for the old lawyer. But the book meandered here and there, much like an old man itself, and some of the meandering was interesting, some was boring, some was apt, and some was puzzling. It's a certain style and I appreciate that, but it wasn't really for me.

"You already know about sadness, there can’t be anything in the book sadder than what you already know."

It is very hard to express my feelings, heartbroken, touched, sorrowful, and even wonder, how could this happen! How’d we come to this?

"The whole thing was sad. 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 in.”

This could be three stories. A writer, the narrator, his criminal attorney father, and his last case, an Ethiopian girl.

This was mostly a court story, not a mystery. An American parent was accused of killing her adopted Ethiopian daughter. When their four other children described the day their sister died, it was so sad!

"She’d had the sinking feeling, hurrying home, leaving everybody else behind, running, finally, with tears blurring her vision, that something was wrong with people. You would think, she said, that people were better than that."

This was a very emotional story with a unique writing style. The relationship between father and son is beautifully expressed. The story of the tragic life of Abigail was so moving. A very unforgettable read.

Undying Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group via NetGalley to give me a chance to read The Final Case by David Guterson, I have given my honest review.
Pub Date: 11 Jan 2022
Review Date: 04 Jan 2022

The Final Case by David Guterson is a legal drama with a difference. The lawyer in the story is an octogenarian who does not have a car and relies on his son for his commute to and from the courthouse. The son, also the narrator, is in a position to describe all that happened before, during and after the court case. The case concerns a young Ethiopian girl, Abeba, who has been adopted by a fundamentalist Christian couple with an unorthodox way of raising children. Abeba dies on a day when she is left in the back yard of her house for an entire day, on a cold and rainy day, in order to punish her for a minor infraction. The old lawyer is hired to defend the mother. This is a difficult subject matter but well worth the time. David Guterson’s prose shines because of its simplicity and beauty. Every sentence, every word keeps the pages turning. This is a book that could easily be re-read, for the simple pleasure of a story well told. The subject matter is serious and, at times, difficult but The Final Case will not disappoint. Highly recommended. Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a multi-faceted novel that addresses issues of guilt, evil, justice, and family, all through the description of a courtroom drama. Told in the first person, the narrator is an author who has decided to take a break from writing fiction, so he is available to help his aged father take on his final defense case. It is quickly apparent that the defendants are guilty of a horrific crime, the abuse and torture of the girl they have adopted from Ethiopia. The couple believes unquestioningly in the power of physical punishment to teach their children to submit to their authority in all things, and in the guise of morality they inflict increasing torture on their victim who refuses to submit. Even knowing their guilt, their lawyer believes in their right to a proper defense and the need for the trial to play out. At times, this novel is extremely uncomfortable to read, yet compelling for the moral and ethical questions raised, and the contemporary dilemmas posed by people convinced of their own moral rectitude turned evil by most standards.

This story is written by an author new to me. He certainly has a distinct writing style using meandering musings and recollections which had me gasping for air. Two of my schoolteacher aunts were screaming in my ear "No, No, No". The use of improper English or poor sentence structure was not tolerated in those long past days. The rambling, off topic subjects are reminiscent of those people you avoid at all cost, already making excuses in your mind on how to get away for a previous appointment, lying that your Mom is in the hospital, the car has a dead battery, or if they call send to voicemail, because you know it will thankfully cut them off. The mile long sentences were not always relevant, nor did they consistently add to the value of the plot. There is no conceivable reason a sentence should be constructed of over two hundred words! Numerous instances had me backtracking just to be reminded of the original point or subject.
The setting is Seattle, Washington with forays into the surrounding area to interview witnesses and an employer. Betsy and Delvin Harvey, evangelical Christians, had allegedly killed a girl (Abeba, Abigail Harvey) they’d adopted from Ethiopia. They are being tried jointly for homicide by abuse. As other reviewers have stated, there is detailed testimonial descriptions of Abigail's abusive treatment. I freely admit to skimming through most of that, too well described.
The other part of the story addresses the father/son relationship. Royal, the father, is Betsy Harvey's attorney. To my dismay, the story dwells substantially more on the family dynamics than the legal case.
The author drew inspiration from an actual case and it is thought provoking. Our country was founded on freedom of religion, which is relevant to the case. There were beautiful passages, if you can wade through the weeds. There was no mystery or suspense. Some of the characters were both believable and well developed. Some were peripheral and vague.
The advance digital copy of "The Final Case" by David Guterson and Knopf publishing was provided to me by NetGalley. These are my personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily.

The main story line in this book revolves around the death of a young adopted Ethiopian girl outside, just feet away from her home's back door. Her parents' defense attorney, Royal, is nearing the end of his storied law career, and the book is narrated by his son (who becomes his chauffeur and assistant early in the story). I don't remember "Snow Falling on Cedars" well (I read it when it was first published), but I do remember I enjoyed it. This book was entirely too wordy for my taste, and I'm not sure if "Snow Falling..." was the same - possibly my attention span is just shorter now. No matter, though, because I often found myself skimming the long (sometimes pages-long) passages, looking for less description and more action. Thank-you to Mr. Guterson, Knopf Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the ARC of this title.

I read Guterson’s prize winner, Snow Falling on Cedars ,many years ago and, as I recall, found it well crafted but lacking fire. The Final Case shares certain qualities with the earlier work.The reviews by other authors were uniformly positive, although I haven’t heard much buzz about this in the press. His style is like an assignment in a graduate level creative writing class. Here is an example:
“ One day, Danielle, seeing that I had time on my hands, urged on me a master’s thesis one of her tea experts had scribed. Its pages were held together by three bronze-plated brads, and its exposed, frontal abstract was dimpled with appropriate tea stains. I sat for a languorous spell with it under [the tea shop’s] moth-eaten tapestries, in a slant of commodious October light falling generously through a wavy, leaded window, scratching my head and refilling from a teapot kept at quaffable temperature by a small bowl of candle wax whose lit wick, as time wore on, angled and then fell into oleaginous dregs.” Just a bit too self-aware of his gift for words.
The story divides abruptly into two major sections and almost as an afterthought ties the two parts together. In the introduction we meet the nameless narrator, an author by profession, and his father, a retired lawyer who has taken on a disturbing case pro bono. The narrator provides transportation for his 80 year old father and thus has a front row seat on the preparation for the case and the trial. A husband and wife have been accused of killing their adopted child, a girl from Ethiopia, and have expressed no remorse, believing they were morally justified in treating her as they did. There are many elements in the case to explore including White privilege and the government’s ability to provide oversight for children in their system. Before the judge can render a decision, the narrator’s father dies.
The next section concentrates on the narrator and his relationships with family, writers and other people with whom he interacts. I kept doggedly reading, waiting to find the connection to Part 1. A conclusion was ultimately reached but whether the second part did much to advance the plot I am not convinced. This is a story that has all the elements of a powerful drama — a search for justice, the cruelty of international conflicts, family relationships, and yet it barely stirred my blood. Guterson’s interest seems more academic than visceral which make provide good material for a writing workshop but doesn’t cry out to be read by the general public.

Thinking back to the struggle I had when I read "Snow Falling on Cedars,"(took me three tries to finally get into it and read it through), I had some idea what to expect of Guterson's writing style. The story revolves around a close-to-middle aged son who acts as a chauffeur for his father, an 80-something attorney who has been asked to defend Betsy Harvey, who is accused of killing her adopted Ethiopian daughter in a very heartrending way. The attorney approaches the trial in an unusual fashion. As the trial progresses we see the disintegration of a family, and, partially, a community of fundamentalist Christians, many of whom are convinced beyond any doubt that their methods of child-rearing are infallible.

The story wanders a lot, feels ponderous much of the time, and yet is worth the time to read.

Heartbreaking story. Not a true court room drama if that's what you are looking for.
For me the writing was very descriptive but I found it hard to get into the actual writing.


Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

I absolutely loved Snow Falling on the Cedars and had high hopes for this book. These hopes were met in the first half of the book. The writing is descriptive and beautiful, throughout. Each of the characters are well developed and interesting. The case at the heart of the book is horrifying and evokes in the reader a great despair and a desire for the perpetrators to be adequately punished.

Then an incident occurs, which I will not elaborate on for fear of giving too much away, and no more is said about the case again, until very close to the end of the book. In the intervening pages the description of people, events, relationships and emotions remains beautifully evoked and expressed, but, to me, is totally removed from what I consider to be the focus of the book. This left me feeling somewhat frustrated. There may well be a parallel social commentary in this part that I have failed to discern, in which case the fault is mine and I apologise.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

"The Final Case" is a huge departure for esteemed novelist David Guterson, marketed as a literary courtroom thriller. Plotwise, that may well be accurate, but this novel is something else entirely, a discursive, emotional journey through evil and the love of a son for his father. When a writer adrift assists his ancient lawyer father defend two conservative religious fanatics, accused of killing an Ethiopian adoptee, at first the reader sashays along with Oregon intellectual minutiae and rituals, but soon the novel heats up into a coruscating depiction of humanity's barbarity towards itself, all the while tenderly exploring the father-son dynamics. I'm not sure I've ever read a novel quite like this (and I've read more courtroom dramas and father-son dramas than I care to remember) and it took me a while to orient my thinking, but once I was in the grip of Guterson's spell, well, I was utterly transfixed. The writing is almost leisurely, fully happy to dwell on testimony, a setting, the Seattle ambience, our hero's inner life, yet the urgency of the story makes for a rapid, memorable read that has stuck in my craw ever since. The Final Case is unique, essential reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Final Case.
I really enjoyed this book. It is the first Mr. Guterson has written in a very long time and I'm glad the drought is over.
The theme is deceptive. A son is narrating a case that his 85-year-old father has taken on. It is a gruesome, horrific story and one thinks there is going to be a whole moral conclusion. There isn't. The book is about the relationship between father and son, son and wife, father and the world in general. It is beautifully written.

However, this isn't for everyone. The writing is slow and meandering with beautiful language and you don't want to race through it. So if you are looking for a court case that will keep you up all night reading, this isn't it.

I highly recommend this book especially to those who loved Snow Falling On Cedars

The Final Case is written beautifully.

The book is slow paced at times and at others you are cringing as you read about the difficult subject of child abuse .

The court case can be brutal at times but I am sure is sadly realistic.

The father and son are both strong characters and their relationship strengthens in my opinion.

The Final Case is well worth the read and some people will love it more than others. I am certainly glad to have had the opportunity to read The Final Case and the book will stay with me for quite awhile.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Knopf for the opportunity to read and review.

If you enjoyed Snow Falling on Cedars, you might enjoy David Guterson’s newest novel which takes place in the Pacific Northwest.

A writer who has tired of writing fiction is the unnamed narrator of this story. His father, a lawyer in his 80s, calls upon his son to be his driver during a court case that he has volunteered to be the public defender for. The case is upsetting. A fundamentalist Christian couple with several children adopts a young girl from Ethiopia. Having their own ideas about how children should be trained (not raised) to be completely obedient, it is not a surprise when this child who has joined the family with her own history can’t meet their expectations. One cold and rainy night Abigail’s (born Abeba) body is found just steps from the house, having died from hypothermia. The prosecutor has to prove that this is a case of homicide by abuse and Royal, the narrator’s father, is defending Betsy, the adoptive mother.

Guterson builds strong characters and while this story is based on a real case, he has managed to make my stomach upset with the details of the case and the tragic life of Abigail. We learn some about Abigail’s history with an uncle and in an orphanage. I really enjoyed these parts of the story.

I was very engaged with the portions of the story relating directly to the trial and to the character’s backgrounds. I did however get a bit confused when the author chose to go into much detail about things that I couldn’t see as related. Some of these lines of thought or musings involved tea or aerospace engineering or another author’s work for instance. Perhaps the connections were above my awareness.

The topics of rights and freedoms, grief, justice, and race were what held my interest most. The writing is thoughtful but a bit too flowery in the first third of the book for me.

Overall, I can say I enjoyed this book, am happy to have read it and feel comfortable recommending it to those who enjoy literary writing and a complicated criminal case to parse through.

Thank you to @netgalley and @aaknopf for this arc in exchange for my honest opinions. The Final Case publishes January 11, 2022.

So, do you trust your authors? Will you stick with a book, even when you are not sure of the journey? Too often, I see readers who complain about a book and stop reading. They are bored. They don’t ‘like’ the characters. There are too many words. But I have learned to trust the author. A book is a journey. There may be unexpected side paths, or what seems like extraneous stops along the way, but when you reach the destination you discover the master plan and how it all fits together, building to an experience you won’t soon forget.

I have read several books like that this year. The Final Case is one of the books that a reader MUST finish to the end. Trust me—I was in tears.

The narrator is a writer who has decided to quite fiction and so is available to drive his elderly, practicing lawyer father as he prepares for a trial. The lawyer is to represent a despicable woman, who if not directly guilty of murder, has contributed to the death of an adopted girl. The old man explains to his son his belief in the law and due process, how he has lost at least as many cases as he has won.

The woman and her husband embraced a self-made theology based on punitive control over their children, with obedience their main goal. They adopted an African girl who has lost her family, who showed great tenderness and care to others in the orphanage, but who arrives unhealthy in body. The girl is proud. She will not be brought to control by lash or abuse. She will not become an automation reacting in fear, as the couple’s other children are, even meting their mother’s punishments on command. The children’s psychological health and wholeness are imperiled by this abusive control, but the parents believe they are ‘saved’.

Our narrator tells us his tale of aiding his father and what he learns about this case. He tells us about his sister and her tea house and the employee who quits, accusing the sister of participating in colonialism, ‘getting rich’ from another county’s resources. He tells us about the young man trying to write and how he is overwhelmed with the shoulds and don’ts of being a while male today. He tells us about the divisions of our contemporary world.

And in the end, he shares with us the answer.

It is so simple, really. We embrace our own sin and hold it dear, and count all else as evil. But we should know what is important. What is required of us? To do justice and love one another.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

This book is not for the faint of heart. Although David Guterson's (Snow Falling On Cedars) new novel is focused much more on aging, having a meaningful life and the relationship between father and son, the backdrop of the story is upsetting at best.

The premise is that Royal is an attorney in his 80's hoping to work until his death. He takes on a pro bono case and loses his license due to an age-related parked car accident. His on will need to drive him to complete this case and we go along for the ride. The case is based on a real story, a fundamentalist couple who murder their adopted Ethiopian daughter via torture and neglect. Guterson is such a fine writer that you are drawn far in to the story. I think it would have been easier for me if the backstory of the Ethiopian orphan had not been included, if she had not been "brought to life." The treatment she endured is brutal and you are forced to learn about it from multiple witness testimonies. Strangely enough, this isn't the true focus of the story and in many ways because of this, there is not a satisfying ending.

I would still recommend this book if you are a Guterson fan, literature fan, and if this synopsis interests you. It is truly beautiful and engaging writing but the story didn't completely connect for me. #NetGalley

David Guterson writes excellent characters, I always enjoy that most in his books. I really appreciate the way this book unfolds the characters, their relationships, the aspects of the case and their relation too it. The location descriptions are also key, setting a tone that really adds to the story.

David Guterson's latest novel is titled "The Final Case". It is the story about an author who has decided not to write stories any more. He began chauffeuring his aging attorney father who could no longer drive. The fictional court case is loosely based on a true story from 2011. I was disappointed that there wasn't better courtroom drama in this story. I also found Mr Guterson's writing to be quite pompous. I want to thank NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for an early copy to review.

Thoughtful and moving., The father son relationship is beautifully depicted. The mixing of religious fundamentalism, overseas adoption, and child abuse is somewhat muddled,l, leading to a less than satisfying conclusion. But maybe that's the point.