Monday, March 24, 2008

Flight to Freedom-D.J. Wilson

Flight to Freedom
D.J. Wilson
Medallion, May 2008, $15.95
ISBN: 9781933836379

He is a wealthy attorney and philanthopist who has given millions to charities in his hometown. He lives in a beautiful home with a sweet wife and is looked upon as a hero by the adulating townsfolk. Of course all those who worship this paragon have no idea what really happens inside his home; a torture chamber of abuse Harland Jeffers pours on his spouse Montana. For a decade he beat her to the point she had broken bones yet never went to the hospital as he refused because such treatment might dim his image.

He taunted her with the fact that she killed her newborn baby girl when she took her out of the hospital on a cold night leading to pneumonia. He threatened to kill her if she ever left him and the one time she went to the police they just took her back to him, as she should be grateful to be married to the town’s leading citizen. One day he caught her going through a drawer that he has forbidden her to open; he went berserk. She took a gun out of that drawer and fired point blank range; she killed him. Even though she now resides in jail, Montana feels free for the first time in her life. Montana plans to plead guilty, but a kindhearted lawyer persuades her to stand trial and let the world see the real monster she killed in self-defense.

This is a poignant heart wrenching legal thriller starring a life long victim whose brother, father and husband abused her physically and mentally. Her naivety make her easy prey for these predators. Readers will empathize with Montana while hoping a jury will accept her self defense plea especially if justice is to occur. Although difficult at times to see until it is too late as the sociopath is often devious enough to hide their ugliness with public good deeds, D.J. Wilson makes a plea of her own that everyone must stay alert as abuse is an ugly crippler to family and society.

Harriet Klausner

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