Protect And Defend

Patterson is best known for his crime thrillers, but here he ventures into the world of high politics and social concerns. The result is no less absorbing, the focus just as sharp. A particular strength is his choice of an issue very much of our times - one with which many families will identify. Mary Ann Tierney, a 15-year-old Californian girl, is pregnant with a brain-damaged child that she wants to abort. However, a new law requires parental consent - and there is the problem. Mary Ann's parents are pro-lifers and will not agree to termination, even though they know the birth could leave their daughter sterile. When Mary Ann enlists lawyer Sarah Dash to fight her corner, alarm is raised at the White House where new President Kerry Kilcannon has just arrived. Kerry intends to appoint Caroline Clark Masters as the United States's first female Chief Justice - but Caroline and Sarah are former colleagues, and it is clear that this abortion issue could undermine the government. The plot becomes more complex, relationships intertwine and we find that moral dilemmas affect more players than at first seemed apparent. The characters are so strong that the reader will find it hard not to root for one side or the other, or even both. Patterson's story could be seen as a treatise on the pro- or anti-abortion issue and he certainly makes his own stance clear. To that extent the eventual outcome is foreshadowed, but getting there proves to be a tense passage. This is a blockbusting story in whatever genre you care to define it, and Patterson's writing is as ever blessedly unpretentious. (Kirkus UK)