Monday, December 28, 2015

Saving Max

Saving Max
by Antoinette van Heugten

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: Max Parkman-autistic and whip-smart, emotionally fragile and aggressive-is perfect in his mother's eyes.  Until he's accused of murder.

Attorney Danielle Parkman can't deny her son's behavior has been getting worse-drugs and violent outbursts have become a frightening routine.  Still, the diagnosis she receives from a top-notch adolescent psychiatric facility that Max is deeply disturbed-and dangerous-is too devastating to accept.

But then she finds Max, weapon in hand, at the bedside of a fellow patient who has been brutally stabbed to death.

Trapped in a maelstrom of doubt and fear and barred from contacting Max, Danielle's maternal instincts snap sharply into focus.  The justice system is bearing down on them, so she must use her years of legal experience to find out the truth, no matter what that might be.  But has she, too, lost touch with reality?  Is her son actually a killer?
from the back of the book

Review: This book is a fast paced story about a mother trying to figure out the truth about what happened to her son and another patient.  It definitely kept me reading once the mystery was being investigated.  I did find the beginning a little confusing and the character development flat.  Danielle takes her son to a topic psychiatric clinic because of his emotional state.  He quickly becomes violent and Danielle becomes aggressive.  The characters hadn't been developed enough by this point to warrant this behavior and it left me wondering if I missed something.  But when you keep reading you realize why Max was acting the way he was acting and it makes more sense.  There were also many times when you have to remember that the book is fiction and that everything isn't based in reality.  There are quite a few problems that you see with the psychiatric hospital and the treatment of patients but the book is fiction and must be treated as fiction.  You need to suspend your belief in reality for the sake of action and suspense.  This was a fun and fast book to read albeit not very realistic.

Rating: 4 stars

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