What Happened to the Bennetts

Lisa Scottoline — 2022

How far would you go to save your family? In this heart-stopping novel by #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, a suburban father must answer that question when a botched carjacking places his family in the crosshairs of ruthless criminals. Jason Bennett is a family man and an elite court reporter--so good at his work that he was once selected to cover legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay. One of his skills is the ability to read lips, which his fourteen-year-old son calls his "superpower." But his life takes a horrific turn when he is driving his family home from his teenaged daughter's lacrosse game, and he notices a pickup truck tailgating and cutting off their new Mercedes. Two men jump from the pickup, brandishing weapons, and demand that Jason turn over the Mercedes. He complies, getting his family and their dog out of the car. But when the dog leaps at the carjackers, one of their guns goes off. Jason hears a scream behind him, and his daughter falls to the street. Then there's another gunshot, as one carjacker shoots the other point-blank, killing him. The killer runs back to the pickup truck and drives away, leaving Jason to watch his daughter die. In his blinding grief, Jason receives a visit from the FBI. The agents inform him that the two carjackers work for a dangerous criminal organization distributing opiates in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware. The family must enter the witness protection program, or WITSEC. Hiding away, the family crumbles--and Jason begins to lose faith that the government is taking care of them at all. Jason sneaks out one night and discovers a startling fact that throws into doubt everything the government has been telling him. He takes matters into his own hands to save his family and bring his daughter's killer to justice, risking his life in the process. By the shocking end of the novel, Jason discovers a new definition of himself, shedding not only the identity the government has given him, but the one he was born with.

Reviews

Katie B.@thismermaidreads

Jan 20, 2023

So I’m not a big fan of cheating on your marriage plot lines and honestly after finishing the book, I feel like it was completely capable to have the twists and turns without the extramarital affair. Just my humble opinion.

This review contains a spoiler

Sue Schilling@soo-z

Apr 15, 2022

It was a riveting storyline!

Neisha Gabrysiak@skoobevoli2003

Mar 7, 2022

*I was given an e-ARC from NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.* I am a big fan of Lisa Scottoline and have read several of her books. I haven't had the chance to read/review an unedited ARC of hers yet, until now. I hope that any issues I have with the book are due to the fact that it's unedited. **SPOILERS AHEAD** The Bennett family is a loving, normal family driving home from their daughter's softball game when tragedy strikes. What they thought was a fellow motorist in distress turned into a would-be carjacking that ends in the death of one of the members of the family. But it's not that cut-and-dried. The remaining Bennetts are placed in the witness protection program because the "car-jackers" are members of a well-known area gang and the Bennetts lives are all at stake. More tragedy strikes when the Bennett's family home burns down while supposedly being watched over by the FBI. Then, the father's business burns and the mom's photography studio is ransacked. Jason Bennett, the father, works as a court recorder and decides that his experience with that means that he is qualified to do his own investigations into what happened that night. A lot of twists and turns and random connections leads the investigation down a path that nobody considered - Jason's time as a court recorder at Gitmo and a Senator with a Presidential bid. ****************************************************************************************** Like I said, I am big fan of Lisa Scottoline's books. I like her style and her genre - both of which remind me a bit of Jodi Picoult with the court/law backgrounds and tendency to add in little twists that nobody was expecting. However. I am still very unsure how I feel about this book. Like I said, I hope that my issues with it are due to it being unedited (one specific issue - the son is supposed to be around 14 years old but his mannerisms and such are that of a much younger kid. But...he's also dealt with a lot of tragedy in a short amount of time, so maybe that's why.). It's a good book to read if you're in the mood for a quick read with some surprises thrown in.