The Conviction by Robert Dugoni

The Conviction by Robert Dugoni is a thriller that shakes the reader to the core about what is being done in the justice system in this novel. When a lawyer finds out his son is being mistreated by the system, he takes action into his own hands to try and rescue his son, but will he be able to go far enough to do it?

Book Description

“In this gripping, high-octane thriller by critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni, a father takes the law into his own hands to save his son, trapped in a juvenile detention center from hell.

Lawyer David Sloane is desperate to get through to his troubled teenage son Jake. Still reeling from the devastating loss of his mother in a brutal murder, Jake has spiraled out of control and Sloane has barely been able to keep him out of jail. So when his old friend, detective Tom Molia, suggests that they take their sons on a guys-only camping trip, Sloane gratefully accepts.

What Sloane imagines will be the perfect excursion turns into a horrifying nightmare when the boys are arrested for vandalizing a general store late at night while their fathers are asleep. The next morning, before Sloane and Molia even realize they’re gone, their sons are tried, convicted, and sentenced by the presiding judge to six months in the county wilderness detention camp, Fresh Start. For the teenagers, a grueling physical and psychological ordeal begins.

As Sloane fights the conviction against the boys, he discovers that local judge Earl Boykin’s authority seems to extend far beyond the confines of his courtroom. Meanwhile, on the inside, Jake is forced to grow up quickly and soon learns the hard way that this detention center has a very different purpose than rehabilitating troubled youths.

With their legal options exhausted, Sloane and Molia will do anything to save their sons—even mount a daring rescue operation that could win the boys their freedom . . . or cost all of them their lives.” – The Conviction

My Thoughts

The Conviction is a very different kind of thriller about parents and their rebellious teens. I’ve never read a book written with this kind of take on teenagers and how they could end up in a hellish detention center such as the one Jake ends up in. This is seriously the kind of place I hope doesn’t exist anywhere in the world, but I know that there are probably places like this somewhere, and that makes this book an even more of a page-turner and suspenseful read.

Dugoni does an excellent job portraying the characters with such realism that you feel like you know them and are genuinely hopeful for their best outcomes. He grabs your attention from the beginning and does a superb job plotting the story to make it an enjoyable read. I don’t want to give away the ending because that would ruin reading the book when you read it for yourself, I’ll just say that it is suspenseful up to the end and was a great read! I definitely recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of The Conviction, Touchstone, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.