A review by howifeelaboutbooks
Janeology by Karen Harrington

4.0

I won this book from a giveaway on the author's blog. I started reading it the day I received it. The front cover calls the book "a legal thriller ripped from the headlines," but that's not exactly the case. Yes, the story centers around two trials, but it delves so much deeper than that. Harrington studies the people involved with these cases as well as their relatives - living and dead. Jane, a mother of young twins, has a breakdown and tries to drown her children - one dies, and one survives. Her insanity plea is disputed by many factors, like telling someone to call 911 (implying she knew something was wrong), and brings about another case against her husband, Tom. Her husband should have seen all this coming, right? Should have known his wife was capable of murdering her own children. Tom's mother hires an attorney to prove this allegation wrong, and though he's overwhelmed with guilt, Tom fights only because he needs to raise his surviving daughter.

To dispute this claim, Tom's attorney hires a clairvoyant, who uses items from Jane's past, items Jane had hidden from her husband, to learn about Jane's genealogy (ahh, see the cleverness of the title now?). We learn about Jane's parents, their childhoods, her grandparents and their childhoods, and so on and so on. The courtroom drama was an interesting way to frame a much bigger story. And the ending... my goodness was the ending amazing. Your heart will be pounding for pages beforehand and then... just read it.