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Puppet
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Plot Summary of Puppet
"

Atria, Jan 2005, 24.95, 352 pp.
ISBN 0743488008

Amanda Travis has spent the last decade running from her memories including the father who neglected her and the mother who either ignored or verbally abused her. She drowns her emotional pain in mindless sex, leaving two ex-husbands when they threatened to get too close. Now a lawyer in southeast Florida, she has organized her life just the way she wants it, not letting anyone get too close. Her calm is suddenly fractured one night when her ex-husband calls her from Toronto to tell her that her mother in jail on a murder charge.

Despite the fact that she tells herself she doesn't care, she flies to Toronto where Ben represents her mother Gwen. Ben tells her that Gwen isn't talking, insisting only that she killed an unknown man in a hotel lobby because she felt like it and she is perfectly sane. Gwen's stonewalling is infuriating Amanda who believes there is a reason for what she did; for once in her life she isn't going to run away from adversity but plunge into it and expose the secret her mother is so desperate to hide.

Harriet Klausner
"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Puppet
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story: - present (2000-2010)
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Legal Thriller Yes
Legal Plotlets - finding out whether someone is really guilty

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - a lawyer creature
Age: - 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - White/American
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - homemaker
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some
Motive of antagonist - revenge
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Setting
The Americas (not US): Yes
The Americas: - Canada

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths? - 1
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
Most similar books to Puppet
Primary Justice by William Bernhardt
Reasonable Doubt by Philip Friedman
The Undertaker's Widow by Phillip Margolin
Trial by Fire by D.W. Buffa
Conviction by Richard North Patterson


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