What Happened to the Bennetts
From #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline comes a pulse-pounding new novel.
Your family has been attacked, never again to be the same.
Now you have to choose between law…and justice.
Jason Bennett is a suburban dad who owns a court-reporting business, but one night, his life takes a horrific turn. He is driving his family home after his daughter’s field hockey game when a pickup truck begins tailgating them, on a dark stretch of road. Suddenly two men jump from the pickup and pull guns on Jason, demanding the car. A horrific flash of violence changes his life forever.
Later that awful night, Jason and his family receive a visit from the FBI. The agents tell them that the carjackers were members of a dangerous drug-trafficking organization—and now Jason and his family are in their crosshairs.
The agents advise the Bennetts to enter the witness protection program right away, and they have no choice but to agree. But WITSEC was designed to protect criminal informants, not law-abiding families. Taken from all they know, trapped in an unfamiliar life, the Bennetts begin to fall apart at the seams. Then Jason learns a shocking truth and realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands.
Sometimes justice is a one-man show.
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Readers say *What Happened to the Bennetts* is an emotionally gripping, action-packed thriller that begins with a shocking attack and the family’s for...
My first LS book. Not for me. While it was an attention getter right outta the gates, and held me for a bit, it took a hard left about halfway thru as the implausibility became too egregious to stay invested in the story. In the gist of another reviewer’s words, it for sure turned into one action-packed movie scene after the next. And there’s just no way that much risky or dangerous or threatening or… happens to ONE person. Unless it’s a Tom Cruise movie.
The first half of this book was a great build up to the second half. Imagine losing your daughter to a violent crime and having to go into protective custody all in a 24 hour period. Lisa Scottoline does a nice job drawing out the feelings of each character as they are dealing with the loss. So Jason Bennett decides to handle unraveling this crime by himself. And suburbanite dad becomes a loan ranger taking on drug gangs, politicians and members of the FBI, single handedly. There is a fine line between a believable thriller in which you can suspend reality for the sake of a fun, twisty plot and a thriller that becomes more and more absurd with implausible plots. Unfortunately the second half of this novel fell apart for me because of just how implausible it became.
Our book club chose this book on the sole basis that the central character is a court reporter (have I mentioned I'm a court reporter?). It was a fun read, but there were lots of twists and turns that got more and more ridiculous, and my willing suspension of disbelief can only go so far. I do love that the author gave a shout-out to Browseabout Books, one of my favorite bookstores.
This was a good read, fast-paced and action-packed, just how I usually like to spend my reading time. I’ve never read Lisa Scottoline before, but I will check out her other work.
The story starts with a bang – two members of a local mob carjack Jason and his family and in the process, his daughter gets killed. What follows is the complete destruction of the family’s life as they enter WITSEC. Most of the first half of the story is about how the family flounders in program. Then Jason begins to discover that they’re not safe even in the program and that the FBI may be corrupted. This is not a spoiler because it was revealed fairly early in the story.
The second half was when the story kicked into high gear and really took off. The last few chapters seemed to drag out the ending for some reason. They could have been condensed into one chapter, along with the epilogue, would have wrapped up the story just fine without all of the added filler that didn’t seem to really add to the story or the ending.
The story starts with a bang – two members of a local mob carjack Jason and his family and in the process, his daughter gets killed. What follows is the complete destruction of the family’s life as they enter WITSEC. Most of the first half of the story is about how the family flounders in program. Then Jason begins to discover that they’re not safe even in the program and that the FBI may be corrupted. This is not a spoiler because it was revealed fairly early in the story.
The second half was when the story kicked into high gear and really took off. The last few chapters seemed to drag out the ending for some reason. They could have been condensed into one chapter, along with the epilogue, would have wrapped up the story just fine without all of the added filler that didn’t seem to really add to the story or the ending.
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