The Final Case by David Guterson is a legal thriller about adoption and the conservative beliefs and values of an adoptive family. The story is told through the eyes of the defense attorney's adult son as he shepherds his elderly father back and forth to the courthouse and the defendant's home. Though difficult to read in parts due to the nature of the child abuse, this story is moving and sad. It definitely leaves the reader pondering life choices made by the characters. Read and enjoy!

This book has so many feels. There is the aging and loss of parents by a son, the death by abuse of a young girl adopted from Ethiopia and the trial of her parents. I really felt for the young girl - excited to come to America and a better life only to face more abuse, hatred and pain. This was d we definitely a hard read - often going off on other tangents - but worth the time to finish.

Thanks to the publisher for an advance copy of this book. I know this book has received some criticism about being slow and meandering but I enjoyed that part of it. Guterson is great at social observation and I really savored his writing. This is not a page turner, more a long drawn out book with some courtroom drama, but it is highly worth a read.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An elderly attorney takes on the homicide case of an adoptive couple who treated their child harshly which lead to her death. Heartbreaking story, but beautifully written.

Guterson delves into the horrific system of clashing cultures in the adoption world as well as the father-son relationship of the narrator.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early read of this book!

This book is hard to define. It is a courtroom drama, it is a father-son story, and it is a story about our country in the current times. The main storyline revolves around parents who are arrested for the murder of their adopted child – the child was from Ethiopia and was mistreated and abused while with the family, the circumstances eventually leading to her death. The narrator’s father, a well-known defense attorney, agrees to defend the mother. He is in his 80’s and decides this may be his final case. His son, the narrator, a retired fiction writer, has time on his hands and offers to help his father, though he mainly acts as chauffeur and observer. He accompanies his father to court, where he hears the horrible details of the case. He has long discussions with his father about it – about the family, about the morals and obligations of the parents, about the father’s calling to offer a defense for the indefensible. What makes this more than a typical legal drama is the narrator’s attempt to understand our country today – from people who live off the grid, to the role of religion in our society, to the consequences of power and privilege. It is not a page-turning thriller, but a book to keep thinking about, definitely an excellent book for book group discussions.

In searching for the driving point of this novel, I think it must be the last sentence of the story: all we can do is love people. The overall atmosphere of the novel is gloomy, the pace is slow, and the characters do not demand bonding from the reader. But the core story of an Ethiopian child adopted by an ultra right fundamentalist religious couple is compelling.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf Books for the ARC to read and review.

I'm not quite sure where I stand on this novel. The subject matter is heartbreaking, certainly, and the premise engaging - but I struggled to get into the actual story. I have read books by other authors with a tendency to ramble, but I found this story a bit disjointed and didn't like the shift about a third of the way through.
Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

I had forgotten how "densely" Guterson writes, each sentence being worthy of some examination, not just a bridge from one space to another. This is a sad tale of abuse and the honor of a lawyer to represent the abuser as best he can. It's the revealing of a father's life, and what he considers important to himself and his place in the world, and his son's attempt to understand that place. It doesn't appear as though the son has entirely formed an opinion of his own place in the world, or perhaps, come to a crossroads.

I really wanted to like this book because I love Snow Falling on Cedars. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me

An enduring story of son's retired lawyer father who is called back for a case of an Ethiopian orphan girl who dies from the abuse of a cult like disciplinary mother and and father. The narrator and lawyer's son is appropriated as the chauffeur as the father no longer is able to drive, but this gives the time for the son and father to become closer. In trying to deal with death, justice and injustice his father's wife sums up life with "We can Love people" and "What else is there?"

I loved Snow Falling on Cedars, so I was excited to see a new release by David Guterson. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed by this book. Rather than reading like a cohesive novel, it felt like a haphazard series of short stories with poor connections between them. At times the writing was engaging and well done, but even the quality of the writing felt inconsistent.

I really liked this book a lot, for the first 70% of it. But then something happens in the story, and the original story was suddenly dropped until the last 15-20 pages of the novel. And that transition, in my opinion, was not very good. In fact, it was very strange.
"The Final Case", involves the death of a little Ethiopian girl who has been adopted by a Fundamentalist Christian family, in Seattle. In fact, it's the parents who are accused and then arrested for the child's death.
The first 70 % of the book deals with the death of the child and the trial that ensues. We are introduced to the bizarre parenting of the couple and the horrors the child endured. And I care you not to weep. Both for the child and what could have been an outstanding book.

Thanks, NetGalley for allowing me to read this little gem. I finished this tale of an adult son and his father, a lawyer, who defends the perpetrator in a heartbreaking case of child abuse in a single afternoon. I have gone back to it several times since then- the author's big-hearted examination of love and parenting calls for deeper reflection. Book groups will find much to discuss here.

The Final Case by David Guterson is a heartfelt legal mystery that has you cheering for the underdogs and admiring the son for assisting his aging attorney father with a doomed case from the onset. There are many twists and turns that make the book impossible to put down.

The writing was a joy to read. This is a first-person story told about his father and the horrific case for which his father is the defendant's lawyer. Dad had aged to the point that he no longer drove, so his son acted as a driver and companion as dad planned a defense. During the process of the trial, we get to experience the benefits of a close, loving, and supportive family life. And when we learn about the defendant we see the sometimes terrible things families can do. The story itself is heartbreaking--a family has adopted a child from Africa, and the family has allowed the child to die. "My father" is a defense attorney who believes most of his clients were indeed guilty, but they still deserved the benefits of their rights under the law. This case, though, was too much even for him. The story was hard, but it is a great read.

Ramona Thompson

A girl dies one late, rainy night a few feet from the back door of her home. The girl, Abeba, was born in Ethiopia. Her adoptive parents, Delvin and Betsy Harvey—conservative, white fundamentalist Christians—are charged with her murder. Royal, a Seattle criminal attorney in the last days of his long career, takes Betsy Harvey’s case. An octogenarian without a driver’s license, he leans on his son—the novel’s narrator—as he prepares for trial.

I eagerly started reading this book since I loved Snow Falling on Cedars. The book was divided into three sections--pretrial, trial, and post trial. The first two parts read like I imagined it would, but the third part left me, personally, confused as to why most of it was written. I guess I expected it to be what happened to the Harveys after the trial, but that only happened at the very end. The rest of this part of the book seemed disjointed with the rest of the book. It was the narrator meeting with a lot of people attempting to write their own book, but did not seem to me to connect with the rest of the story. I will recommend it because someone else may be able to see how all parts of the story connect.

I was REALLY looking forward to reading The Last Case by David Guterson, mostly because I loved Snow Falling on Cedars. Thanks to Knopf Dougleday and NetGalley, I received a copy in exchange for this honest review…and I REALLY wanted to love it.

The story sounded like it was perfect for a well-written book by a truly talented author: An attorney in his eighties, who continues to go to the office despite rarely having any actual work to do, agrees to take on the case of Betsy Harvey, a Christian fundamentalist adoptive parent of a girl from Ethiopia who was found dead a few feet from the back door of their home on a rainy cold night. The child shows physical signs of abuse, and is clearly malnourished. The parents swear they treated her exactly as they did their birth children, although the porta-potty in the back yard and some other clues seem to suggest otherwise.

Narrated by the attorney’s adult son, a burned-out writer who begins the book by saying “Awhile back, I stopped writing fiction,” the story seems to be a courtroom drama with associated commentary on racism, adoption, fundamentalism, aging, and justice. And those are all there, along with some truly horrible characters, particularly the defendant, who rants about all the ways White Christians are oppressed in contemporary America, without providing any specific detail. It seems clear the parents neglected the poor girl until she died, supported by testimony from the other children in the family. There is so much digression about the author’s thoughts on writing, aging, and justice that it felt like the dead girl had been forgotten, but the story circles back enough to provide resolution to the specific case (although not in a straight line from the trial’s beginning to end).

Maybe it’s just me, and my expectations for a story with a beginning, middle, and end. And maybe the book reflects actual life more than a TV movie or courtroom drama, because life events often lack a clear or obvious beginning, middle, and end. I’m curious to hear or read from the author as to whether this is deliberate — or maybe a strong editor was needed?

In any case, Guterson really is a terrific writer, but this one didn’t really do it for me…although because I keep thinking about the characters and the story, the author clearly accomplished a challenge: keeping my mind off the pandemic,election, etc. If I could round up my 3.5 stars to 4 I would, but it really wasn’t one of my top reads of 2021, so I’m going with three.

I wanted to love this book the way I did “Snow Falling on Cedars”. I did not. It’s hard to describe how jumbled this book was for me. The main thread is the final case for an old defense attorney which revolves around the horrific death of an Ethiopian foster child at the hands of her Christian fundamentalist parents. The subplots, which aren’t so sub because they run on far too long, include the relationship of the writer protagonist with his elderly and beloved father (the lawyer), fundamentalist extremes, life in Ethiopia, cruelty, his thoughts on aging and writing and work, his life with his wife, relations with friends, his mother, and more, and none of these really hang together. Guterson is a beautiful writer, but I found this a mess in desperate need of cohesion and editing. The ball was dropped.

First time reading from this author. Subject matter made it a difficult read for me
Thank you for the advanced opportunity to read this book