Emerjas

Hope lives in a small town with her mother and big brother, Jeremy, who hasn't spoken since he was about 9 years old. Jeremy is accused of murdering the town's baseball coach, and everyone is convinced he did it. His lawyer's defense strategy involves trying to convince the jury that Jeremy is insane, which Hope must help with. And while he is different, Hope knows he's not insane and not a murderer. With the police convinced they've caught the murderer, it's now up to Hope, her best friend T.J., and Chase, the son of the sheriff, to try to find the real murderer before Jeremy's trial is over.

I will say that I guessed who the murderer was almost immediately after the character was introduced, although I didn't figure out the motive until later. There is also someone who starts stalking Hope in the hopes of trying to scare her off her investigation. It took me longer to figure out who the stalker was. That all being said, unlike some other books where I'm marveling at how clueless the characters are, I could completely understand how it took Hope a while to figure things out. The murderer didn't have an obvious motive and didn't stand out as an obvious suspect.

Jeremy's trial took place throughout the course of the book, with Hope's testimony starting the book off and the closing arguments taking place in the last few chapters. I did laugh over Hope's comments about how much longer the court procedures took than they did on TV. It just reminded me of the many misconceptions that shows, movies, etc. create about things like court proceedings. I'm still learning about things I "knew" that turned out to not be true. (Sorry, misconceptions created by the media are a bit of a fascination of mine, so I always love when something points things like this out.)

It was a bit frustrating with how attached Hope would get to a theory and then focus exclusively on trying to prove that right, no matter how far-fetched it may be. At the same time, she was desperate to save her brother and scared, so I can understand not being the most rational about everything. She was grasping at straws because she just didn't have a lot to go on.

There were a lot of secrets revealed, especially in the last few chapters, and some of the reveals may have gotten a bit ridiculous, but I was entertained throughout everything. It was a fun and enjoyable read, even if I did figure things out fairly quickly.