Selected by Alafair Burke

Law professor by day, crime writer by night, Alafair Burke is the best-selling author of 11 novels (plus three co-authored with Mary Higgins Clark). The former prosecutor, now criminal law professor at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, chose a story of a father who has to leave his job as a prosecutor to defend his troubled teenage son accused of murdering a classmate.

“I love books that bend genre. Defending Jacob has all the legal heft and realism of a novel written by a former prosecutor, as Landay is. But, like Scott Turow’s remarkable Presumed Innocent, the book tells a lawyer’s story from an intensely personal perspective. It’s as much about family, loyalty and community as it is about the American legal system. It’s also a darn good thriller.”