Crime drama without commercials

Malcolm, Janet. Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.

I don't think I quite get this book, but I enjoyed reading it and finished it in just a few hours this Wednesday. At 155 pages, it was a breath of fresh air after the hefty novel I just finished. The richly descriptive depiction of a woman on trial for putting a hit on her husband (who had recently taken custody of their daughter) is refreshing as well, an episode of Law & Order on paper.

What I didn't get was the Iphigenia connection. Certainly the young girl in the case was wronged--possibly abused, jerked from one parent to the other, shuttled around once her mom was in jail and her dad was dead. There's certainly no good outcome for her. Maybe it's because I haven't studied Greek plays in years, but the situation doesn't cry out as (at least the Wikipedia version of) Iphigenia. I'm sure it's me.

I'm also not clear on the author's angle. Her journalistic tendencies mean that facts, interview segments, and trial excerpts form the bulk of the narrative. The reader is left to draw his own conclusions about the guilt of the mother and any potential miscarriage of justice. Certainly the narrative leans toward such questions, but given that the author was so obviously invested in the story, I'm surprised that she didn't go further. It's touchy stuff, though, so I can understand the reservation.

For a quick read on a topic I might not have considered, I applaud this book. It just makes me feel like I need to go back to school a bit (law, journalism, classics, whatever) to fully appreciate it.

Rating: **1/2