Enjoyed this book, and enjoy it more as it continues to play around in my mind. I recommend it to readers who like their mystery/thrillers to have a psychological edge and at little legal action. The writing is deceptively simple. Take my advice and pay attention to the details as you're reading. If the beginning is a little slow or hard to get into, stick with it. It's one of those thrillers that starts with some short chapters that leave you wondering what the heck is going on, but you quickly get drawn into the story and when you think you know what's going on that's when you really don't know what's going on.

A Very Simple Crime is the story of Adam Lee, a man who was orphaned at a young age and, along with his older brother Monty, is sent to live with his mother's sister's family. Adam is a man who seems to have skimmed along the surface of life, not living very deeply. His older brother Monty is one of the most successful criminal defense lawyers in the Atlanta area and a handsome womanizer who seems to have it all. Adam has worshiped Monty since the two brothers were boys.

Adam marries Rachel, a mentally disturbed woman who is the sole heir to her wealthy father's fortunes. They have a child, Albert, who is mentally handicapped. Adam gets a job in his father-in-law's firm and is initially a competent, proficient worker. During his son's childhood, however, he starts to throw himself into his work and is surprised that he becomes successful. Eventually it becomes obvious that Albert needs to be institutionalized after he hits his mother in the head with an ashtray, hard enough that she is hospitalized. Life goes one. At first Adam and Rachel visit Albert regularly, but then Rachel's own mental illness intensifies and the visits dwindle. Adam seems trapped in his sick marriage . . . and from there the plot takes off.

When Rachel is found dead and obviously murdered, is seems a simple conclusion can be drawn that Albert, the son, did it. He was home visiting his mother that weekend. But complications arise. Enter Leo Hewitt, a junior deputy prosecutor whose once stellar career is now in shambles after being blamed for releasing a suspected child murder who was later caught red-handed. Leo is prompted to dig into this new crime. The authorities were going to consider the murder an open and closed case. But Leo finds some damning evidence. Dark history between Adam and Monty comes to light. Did Adam do it? He's claimed all along that he loved his wife....

A Very Simple Crime is one of those crime novels where you're left pondering characters, scenes, and the entire plot. You'll find yourself flipping back through parts of the book and realizing that little things mentioned here and there turn out to be significant things later on.

If you're interested, read the book now, because the movie version is in pre-production. ( )

This sounded like a good idea: a murder mystery by a new writer with a nice blurb on the front from one of my favorites of the genre, Ridley Pearson. It wasn't that good. The basic storyline is that this somewhat successful guy has a very successful lawyer brother, a violent retarded son, a mentally deranged wife, and a trailer-trash girlfriend. Wife is murdered, the guy ends up being accused, there's a trial, and a surprise ending. The courtroom stuff was pretty unbelievable and the ending fairly contrived.

I usually think of books as either: a) technically well done, with a subject matter that I couldn't have even thought about creating myself (like Matterhorn or Freedom), b) technically well done, but with a plot I probably could've come up with (a lot of mysteries) or c) not very well written, and not a very good story line. This is definitely a c) book. ( )

A Very Simple Crime was a wonderful book to read. At first I was like Hmmm, I dont know if I'm going to like this book or not its kind of slow at first, but as you read on it gets better and much more interesting so much to where you do not want to put it down. Love it..... Recommendations start right out of the gate with something juicy to bite on and it never fails, keep them guessing throughout the whole book. It was a great story Thank You for letting me read it. ( )

"If you are unlucky enough to have known the dark as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for darkness is a movable feast."
- Adam Lee

There’s enough darkness following Adam Lee, the main character in Grant Jerkins’ debut novel A Very Simple Crime, to fuel a Thanksgiving sized feast.

The book opens with Adam on trial for the murder of his wife, Rachel. As we learn through Adam’s narrated flashback to the events that brought him to this point in his life, it seems that darkness has followed him like a specter from the time his parents were killed in a car accident when he was a child.

He grows up only to marry a woman whom turns out to be seriously mentally disturbed, and with her has a son, Albert, who is born severely developmentally disabled. Though he doesn’t grow much mentally, Albert does grow to be a very physically large young man, one prone to violent outbursts. After nearly killing his mother during a confrontation Albert is finally institutionalized.

Trying to get some breathing space from his suffocating home life, Adam begins having an affair with one of Albert’s attendants at the institution. To occupy his wife while he sneaks away with his mistress for the weekend Adam brings Albert home from the institution for a visit. Upon his return home from the tryst, however, he finds Rachel dead and Albert nearly nearly catatonic, rocking back and forth in a corner of the room.

With Albert the only one present, and having a history of violence against his mother, the police conduct a perfunctory investigation; it’s clear to them what happened. The setup and majority of the backstory established, it’s at this point A Very Simple Crime turns from pure Southern Gothic into a legal thriller that just happens to be set in the South. And, if possible, it gets even darker.

Assistant Prosecutor Leo Hewitt is a man with some hefty baggage of his own. Once the seeming heir apparent to the District Attorney’s chair, his botching of a high profile case has delegated him to paper pushing and occasional appearances in traffic court. Seeing the Rachel Lee murder case as his last shot at redemption, Leo elbows his way into the investigation and convinces his superiors Albert isn’t the one they should be looking at, Adam is.

Back where we started, with Adam on trial, finds Adam in the company of the one bright spot in his life, his older brother Monty. Handsome and charming, Monty also happens to be a successful defense attorney, and Adam is counting on the big brother he’s looked up to and idolized his whole life to get him clear of the murder charges he’s up against.

As the trial unfolds, Adam’s stoic, matter-of-fact narration of the burdens he carries initially paints him as a noble man trying to make the best of a crappy lot in life. As the story progresses, however, it becomes increasingly apparent that Adam’s dispassionate demeanor is in fact a direct reflection of his soul, cold and empty. Ah, but does that necessarily mean he’s a killer?

Author Grant Jerkins has crafted a masterfully Hitchcockian story in A Very Simple Crime. Every time you think you know where things are headed and what a character is about, Jerkins throws in another twist that leaves you shaking your head at its diabolical cleverness. This is not, however, a book for the faint of heart or those easily offended. There are very graphic descriptions of both sex and violence, and virtually every character in the book is hiding something, working some angle, or trying to manipulate the people around them.

Jerkins’ writing is both brilliant and brutal in its take no prisoners look at the spectacularly dysfunctional Lee family. Every layer of their apparent normalcy is mercilessly peeled back to reveal the deeply damaged and delusional personalities hiding, sometimes not so deeply, underneath. These are not pretty people, but they are endlessly fascinating. A Very Simple Crime is a very impressive debut. Grant Jerkins has serious skills, and you’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t jump on board his bandwagon and get a comfy seat now because there’s going to be standing room only soon. ( )

I read this in one day. It wasn't really anything new, but written at a good pace with a nice twist at the end. Good weekend read ( )