The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall

The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

George Woodbury is a loving father and husband but became highly respected in his community when a few years before he’d stopped a gunman in the school where he taught. Now however things have taken a horrid turn for George when the police arrived on his doorstep, placed him under arrest and began searching his family’s home. George has been accused of sexual impropriety with the young women at the prep school.

George’s arrest has left behind his wife Joan who is torn between denial and outrage when her husband is taken away, his daughter Sadie who is a high school senior herself and his son Andrew who begins to assist in his father’s defense. The family is left behind dealing with the public and media and the treatment that such accusations has brought into their life and struggling with how to proceed until the trial.

The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall is a contemporary story of those that are left behind when a loved one is accused of a horrible crime. If looking for a story of the crime and trial afterwards then this one wouldn’t be for you as those are background information to this book while the family and how they deal with the fallout is at the forefront of the story.

The book changes the point of view all throughout from Joan, Sadie and Andrew as they each struggle with the idea that the loving husband and father could possibly be the evil man he’s being made out to be. With every crime reported on in the media people are apt to make their own conclusions and question those involved and this story tells the behind the scenes tale that we have probably all been curious about at one point or another. Did they know? Did they hide it? Is he truly guilty? I actually found the story quite compelling and the characters interesting as they dealt with how to move on.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.