JANE’S BABY by Chris Bauer. (Intrigue Publishing, June 2018) Trade Paperback, 298 pages. ISBN 194075877 / 9781940758770. Nineteen ratings on Goodreads, average of 4.74 out of 5. Fifteen reviews on Goodreads.
The summary from the Goodreads website . . . . .
Whatever happened to Jane Roe's baby?
Norma McCorvey, of Caddo-Comanche heritage, did not terminate the pregnancy that led her to become the anonymous plaintiff of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court women's rights case Roe v Wade because in 1971, when the motion was first argued, abortion in the U.S. was illegal. The Jane Roe real-life child would now be a woman in her late forties, the potential of her polarizing celebrity unknown to her.
A religious rights splinter group has blackmailed its way into learning the identity of the Roe baby, the product of a closed adoption. To what end, only a new Supreme Court case will reveal. Tourette's-afflicted K9 bounty hunter Judge Drury, a retired Marine, stands in the way of the splinter group's attempt at stacking the Supreme Court via blackmail, murder, arson, sleight of hand, and secret identities.
My review from the Goodreads website . . . . . .
My rating = FIVE STARS. Add to bookshelves: assassin, crime-and-politics, ha-2018-pages-read-challenge, thriller
With a more prominent publisher behind it and an actual marketing campaign, this would easily be a best-seller. Jane's Baby certainly deserves to take a place on the shelf next to the best of the best in modern crime thrillers. What a page-turner!
The premise is based on the landmark Roe Vs. Wade 1971 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The unidentified plaintiff gave birth to her baby before abortion became legal and put it up for adoption.
As the main centerpiece of the story, Bauer speculates that the baby may a woman in her forties, and now a pawn to be used by the religious right. There's a clever twist to the proceedings that I anticipated but it still shocks when it occurs at the three-quarters point in the novel.
Peppered with colorful characters, Jane's Baby is engaging, entertaining, amusing and suspenseful in parts and sometimes all at once. The Tourette's-affected main character, Judge Drury, a bounty hunting ex-Marine with two dogs as partners, is a fantastic character and here's hoping Bauer will utilize him again in a future story. His new friend, Owen Wingert, the dreadlocked midget sports writer and judicial blogger, is a real hoot of a character. Would love to read about him again. And the villain is the best creation of all, a fanatical holy roller nicknamed The Church Hammer, with some serious assassination and terrorist skills.
What I also appreciated about Jane's Baby in addition to the richness of characterization was the diversity among the cast -- something that Bauer doesn't make a big deal about or deliberately try to draw attention to. There are strong female characters, both spiritually and physically. Drury's buddy has two strikes against him - both black and a midget - - yet he celebrates his differences and gains a reputation of sorts. In addition, there are Native American references and characters throughout -- from the U.S. Marshall to the newly appointed female Supreme Court associate justice to the African American/Native American female President of The United States.
from the official Bauer biography . . . . .
“The thing I write will be the thing I write.”
Chris wouldn’t trade his northeast Philadelphia upbringing of street sports played on blacktop and concrete, fistfights, brick and stone row houses, and twelve years of well-intentioned Catholic school discipline for a Philadelphia minute (think New York minute but more fickle and less forgiving).
Chris has had some lengthy stops as an adult in Michigan and Connecticut, thinks Pittsburgh is a great city even though some of his fictional characters don’t, and now lives in Doylestown, PA. He’s married, the father of two, is a grandfather, still does all his own stunts, and he once passed for Chip Douglas of My Three Sons TV fame on a Wildwood, NJ boardwalk.
Chris has been recognized by the National Writers Association, the Writers Room of Bucks County (PA), and the Maryland Writers Association, and is a member of International Thriller Writers and the Horror Writers Association.
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