Certain Truths by Stephanie Wyler

Jackson Berman’s career as a criminal defense attorney was exploding.  He was widely reputed to be defender of the innocent and protector of the rights of the guilty.  The rightly and wrongly accused wanted him in their corner.  But his marriage was imploding.  He would stop at nothing to remain in his young daughter’s life, even if it meant giving in to his estranged wife’s whims and demands.

​While balancing the highs of his professional life with the lows of his personal life, he took on the most important and challenging client of his career: himself.

​Annoying acts of vandalism quickly escalated to attempts on his life.  Searching for the person who wanted him dead, he found himself accused of a horrific crime that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.  Who would defend the defender?

​Certain Truths is a compelling story of one man’s struggle to deal with exaggerations, distortions, and lies, and his search for the peace that comes with living with the truth…no matter how ugly it is.

About the author

Stephanie Wyler has been a juvenile court judge for more than thirty years. She is an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati. She began her legal career as an assistant prosecutor, followed by more than a decade as a criminal-defense attorney. She is active in charitable organizations devoted to serving children. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati School of Criminal Justice and the College of Law. She and her husband live in Cincinnati and Northern Michigan. They have four children and three grandchildren.

Review

‘Certain Truths’ was an in-depth look at the life of Jackson (Jax) Bergman - both professionally as a criminal defence lawyer and personally as a father, friend and husband. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it depicts a complex life but one that is utterly compelling and realistic. This is probably due to Stephanie being a judge and ex-criminal defence lawyer and it makes for an exciting debut. I would certainly read more from Jax’s life and would love to see this turned into a series with a more in-depth look into a single case in each book. That was the only thing I struggled with when reading this is that I wanted to know more about each case - but that's always a good sign when you want more after you have finished reading it.

Jax is at the top of his game professionally - he is an in-demand criminal lawyer who deals with a range of cases. However, his personal life is imploding as his marriage is breaking down and he has had to move out of his home and away from his daughter.

I enjoyed Jax as a character as he had shades of light and dark in him. He is a devoted father and husband, a great best friend but he is also a ruthless lawyer that will do anything to make sure his client gets the best defence. I loved that there was an office cat - Bailey. This added to his humanity!

I flew through ‘Certain Truths’ - it was certainly compelling with all the different cases and characters. I think I am more of an in-depth reader though. I like to know more about cases rather than the high overview we were presented with here. I like knowing the nitty-gritty of things! But that is me though and not a reflection of the high standard of writing - especially for a debut author!

Hopefully there will be more from Jax to come in the near future!