IN DEFENSE OF GOOD WOMEN
A Novel
by Marilyn J. Zimmerman
Zimmerman’s legal thriller follows a small-town attorney whose beliefs are upended when she’s appointed to defend a mother accused of murdering her own child.
Since she took over her father’s practice 20 years ago, Victoria Stephens has known where she stands. A self-described “big-shot attorney in a small town,” she’s known throughout St. Clair County, Michigan, for bringing home the win—and for bringing in huge retainers to spend on red wine and designer shoes. When she’s brought on by the circuit judge for the year’s biggest murder case, though, her other clients take a backseat. It’s the summer of 2016, and the county seat of Port Huron is buzzing with speculation about Calliope “Callie” Thomas, the 17-year-old daughter of a local minister accused of drowning her newborn baby in the St. Clair River, which divides Michigan from Ontario. Callie claims to have no memory of the drowning, of giving birth, or even of being pregnant, but DNA evidence links her to the infant body found in the river, and Victoria knows the defense she’s building is shaky. To make matters worse, the tough-guy county prosecutor, Barrett Michaels—who has a long history with Victoria—is recommending a first-degree murder charge with mandatory life imprisonment. He’s running for a judge’s seat and is determined to project a tough-on-crime image. It looks like the odds are stacked against the young mother, who continues to insist she doesn’t remember a thing. Jean Burley, an older lawyer from Detroit, has been following Callie’s case and insists that Victoria speak to Eleanor Allen, a psychiatrist researching a controversial new syndrome. “Neonaticide syndrome,” Allen explains, is a “specific kind of dissociation” that causes mothers to forget their pregnancy, labor, and panicked desperation to dispose of their baby. The lead seems promising, but a defense based on the syndrome might not be allowed in the courtroom. When Callie’s soon-to-be stepmother finally posts her bail, Callie’s pastor father (whose church sports signs like “THEY’RE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, NOT THE TEN SUGGESTIONS”) won’t let his daughter come home. Victoria, in her own state of panic, offers to house Callie instead. As the two women attempt to build a case, their lives become increasingly, and perhaps dangerously, enmeshed.
Zimmerman’s novel hits a raw political nerve—though the 2016 U.S. presidential election isn’t mentioned, the story carefully skewers puritanical politics around teen pregnancy and abortion, and the story is dedicated to “all the women charged with infanticide whose behavior has been prejudged and misunderstood.” Geography comes into play; “Canada, just over there…is light-years ahead of us on this issue,” readers are informed (slightly didactically), and the small-town Michigan setting is precisely realized. Evocative descriptive language paints a strong setting: As Victoria looks out onto Lake Huron, she observes that, “A few small fishing boats motored in the opposite direction, unzipping the black water, their wakes spreading behind their sterns like paper fans.” The dependably twisty plot, nicely grounded in the author’s real-life legal experience, unfortunately feels rushed toward the conclusion—there’s just too much to resolve, too quickly. Still, the novel strikes a strong balance between entertainment and political manifesto regarding an underexplored issue.A sharp, empathetic, and compulsively readable thriller.