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The Widow Wave: A True Courtroom Drama of Tragedy at Sea
Will anyone ever know what happened to the Aloha, a sport fishing boat that vanished with all onboard in the Pacific off San Francisco’s coast? ‘Knowing’ is a complex, inexact business. There’s real truth and then there’s courtroom truth; a jury’s verdict may or may not approach what actually happened. Nor can someone reading about such an event—one that had no witnesses or hard evidence to explain it—be sure where the truth lies. But trials, judges, and juries are what we use in our legal system to find truth.The Widow Wave explores this alternate reality. It is a fascinating true-life mystery and lawyer procedural rolled into one. Jay Jacobs offers no facile answers—and he’s not the flawless protagonist typically starring in such dramas. He lets us see how such a big wrongful death case really unfolds, in a true story that reads like a novel. Will the jury find the truth? Will the reader?"Jay Jacobs’ vivid prose pulls you into a compelling drama, deftly transporting you from the courtroom to the storm-tossed Pacific and back to the courtroom again. The book reads like a well-wrought detective novel."— Daniel James Brown, New York Times Bestselling Author of 'The Boys in the Boat' "An intelligently told true story of honor, integrity and justice. The Widow Wave reminded me of The Perfect Storm, played out in a taut courtroom thriller. Jay Jacobs masterfully weaves the harrowing tale of the last voyage of the Aloha, and courtroom battle that followed. A great read." — Robert Dugoni, New York Times Bestselling Author of 'My Sister's Grave'"A compelling story of a modern day maritime tragedy that beautifully discusses the vital importance of advances in observational technologies, forecasts and communications in avoiding future loss of life at sea. Jacobs skillfully weaves together the legal, scientific and maritime narratives to enthrall and educate the reader." — Julie Thomas, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Manager of the Institute of Geo and Planetary Physics"Trial lawyer Jay Jacobs, in a unique, personally revealing memoir, defends a widow and her deceased husband's honor in an intimate first person account of how the civil trial process unfolds.... The reader will learn about the strategies, shoals, and embroilments of a real life, vigorously contested trial with its many emotional upheavals." — Justice James Marchiano (ret.), formerly Presiding Justice, California Court of Appeals, First Appellate District
- GenresNonfiction
278 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 13, 2014
23 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 2, 2015
The best book I've ever read that describes what really goes on in the mind of a lawyer in a trial and a judges actions. A compelling story that is sad, proud and true.
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April 18, 2023A feast for heart, mind, and soul
I loved this true-life courtroom drama. I felt for Jay. What an incredible challenge. His warmth really shows through. You'll be right there with him throughout the trial. I learned quite a bit about law. Once again, I was reminded of the massive power of nature; the expert testimonies of professional oceanographers and climatologists helped me to understand this power all the more. And respect it more than ever.
I loved this true-life courtroom drama. I felt for Jay. What an incredible challenge. His warmth really shows through. You'll be right there with him throughout the trial. I learned quite a bit about law. Once again, I was reminded of the massive power of nature; the expert testimonies of professional oceanographers and climatologists helped me to understand this power all the more. And respect it more than ever.
January 28, 2023
Having worked in a law office for 15 years and understanding the ends and outs of a civil trial, I completely utterly enjoyed every page of this book. Courtroom drama at its best. I highly recommend this book.
June 11, 2021
Outstanding legal drama which unravels the mystery of a boat sunk outside of San Francisco Bay (with no survivors), and how the tragedy happened.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 1, 2021
Interesting. Learned something about maritime issues, defense/ prosecution case builds and most interesting…wave formation, wave refraction and waves of coincidence.
July 30, 2022
Good book! We had to read for law school. I actually find this practice area of maritime law really interesting.
February 4, 2024
I read this book because it was recommended to me by my cousin. It was a very slow start for me but ended up being a good story.
September 23, 2024
skipped a decent portion of this book but still logging it because i feel like it. well written and interesting topic but i didn’t really care for it much. 3.5
September 15, 2025
LOVE! such a good telling of what happens in the court room and such a good narrative.
September 23, 2025
Solid non-fiction legal drama. Read for 1L torts
#roll(widow)wave
#roll(widow)wave
September 20, 2021
Widow Wave is a somewhat interesting story told poorly.
The writing suffers for its author's career of legal writing. The dialog is stiff and unnatural, the scenes lack connective tissue. It is thick with unnecessary ellipses and section breaks within contiguous scenes, disrupting what little momentum has built up. Unnatural explanations of certain legal heuristics are given throughout, and we are left parched for description in more fertile areas.
For example, we are told witnesses are questioned but not what the questions are or why they are significant. We are told the author understands why opposing counsel does a certain thing, but not what that understanding entails. In place of such relevant explanation, we are given banal details such as his wife kissing him goodbye, him not watching football on Thanksgiving, and long verbatim instructions given by the judge to the jury regarding procedure.
The same information is repeated multiple times in the span of a page. One glaring instance is on page 133, where we have "the vessel was a modern ship owned by the Kawasaki Shipping Company of Kobe, a well-known and highly regarded Japanese ship line." Then, on page 134, "a big modern ship owned by a large and highly respected Japanese shipping company, Kawasaki Ship Line out of Kobe". An editor should have caught this. I caught it, and by that point I was skimming.
Descriptions are as thin as they are rare. People are variously described as "attractive," their clothing as "fine," and their mannerisms recall that of a poorly programmed chatbot. There is an amateurish dependence on cliche which quickly becomes tedious.
These and other issues are, in part, due to the author’s reliance on his 30-year-old memories of the trial and surrounding circumstances. I think this story would have benefitted by more skillful and inventive writing. Instead we have this pared down recitation of dimly recalled events. And he repeats these mundanities - waking up, going for a run, his wife kissing him goodbye, arriving to court, driving through traffic, sitting down to dinner - in almost all of the later chapters.
Deprived of the creativity one hopes for in a novelization, what remains is skeletal, picked clean, with all the intrigue of a carbon copied court record.
One last thing, possibly most damning of all, was that I didn't like the author as he portrayed himself in the book. He is constantly coddled by his wife, who seems to bear almost all of the emotional burden in the relationship. He never explains what his plans for the case are, only alluding to a lack of plan when confronted by new information presented by the plaintiff. He is very judgemental of the intelligence and manner of others, such as:
"She was a pretty woman...the men in the jury would initially react positively. The women were likely to be more tentative in forming their impressions. If she conducted herself decorously, they would like her. If not, she would receive a more hostile reception from the eight women."
Because women, simpletons guided by primitive emotion, are always in competition with other women. Such jealous harpies!
Plus, he sounds like a total bore.
It's not clear if Quid Pro Books is a vanity publisher - the book design and editing certainly seem like it is. A more adept editor would have fixed the awkward prose and strange formatting.
The writing suffers for its author's career of legal writing. The dialog is stiff and unnatural, the scenes lack connective tissue. It is thick with unnecessary ellipses and section breaks within contiguous scenes, disrupting what little momentum has built up. Unnatural explanations of certain legal heuristics are given throughout, and we are left parched for description in more fertile areas.
For example, we are told witnesses are questioned but not what the questions are or why they are significant. We are told the author understands why opposing counsel does a certain thing, but not what that understanding entails. In place of such relevant explanation, we are given banal details such as his wife kissing him goodbye, him not watching football on Thanksgiving, and long verbatim instructions given by the judge to the jury regarding procedure.
The same information is repeated multiple times in the span of a page. One glaring instance is on page 133, where we have "the vessel was a modern ship owned by the Kawasaki Shipping Company of Kobe, a well-known and highly regarded Japanese ship line." Then, on page 134, "a big modern ship owned by a large and highly respected Japanese shipping company, Kawasaki Ship Line out of Kobe". An editor should have caught this. I caught it, and by that point I was skimming.
Descriptions are as thin as they are rare. People are variously described as "attractive," their clothing as "fine," and their mannerisms recall that of a poorly programmed chatbot. There is an amateurish dependence on cliche which quickly becomes tedious.
These and other issues are, in part, due to the author’s reliance on his 30-year-old memories of the trial and surrounding circumstances. I think this story would have benefitted by more skillful and inventive writing. Instead we have this pared down recitation of dimly recalled events. And he repeats these mundanities - waking up, going for a run, his wife kissing him goodbye, arriving to court, driving through traffic, sitting down to dinner - in almost all of the later chapters.
Deprived of the creativity one hopes for in a novelization, what remains is skeletal, picked clean, with all the intrigue of a carbon copied court record.
One last thing, possibly most damning of all, was that I didn't like the author as he portrayed himself in the book. He is constantly coddled by his wife, who seems to bear almost all of the emotional burden in the relationship. He never explains what his plans for the case are, only alluding to a lack of plan when confronted by new information presented by the plaintiff. He is very judgemental of the intelligence and manner of others, such as:
"She was a pretty woman...the men in the jury would initially react positively. The women were likely to be more tentative in forming their impressions. If she conducted herself decorously, they would like her. If not, she would receive a more hostile reception from the eight women."
Because women, simpletons guided by primitive emotion, are always in competition with other women. Such jealous harpies!
Plus, he sounds like a total bore.
It's not clear if Quid Pro Books is a vanity publisher - the book design and editing certainly seem like it is. A more adept editor would have fixed the awkward prose and strange formatting.
January 27, 2016
There were two widows. Both lost their husbands in a tragic fishing boat accident. One of them sued the estate of the boat's captain, believing he had been negligent and caused the accident. The author defended the deceased captain, his estate represented by his wife Janet. Not only was this a compelling, courtroom drama but it increased my own understanding with the author's descriptions of court room policies, behaviors and rules. For me, the many details--which might have seemed mundane or tedious-- concerning boating, the physics of waves, weather, etc. were woven into the story in such a way that I couldn't stop turning the pages. This is a wonderful courtroom thriller!
November 17, 2015
I am not a Courtroom junkie. Generally anything revolving around the legal world bores me to tears but I couldn't put this book down. Jacobs does an incredible job letting you into his mind as he goes through the discovery process and prepares to defend his client. This is a very compelling story of a courtroom drama, a David vs Goliath tale. I would recommend this book to just about anyone. The author does a great job of explaining legal terms so the average reader can process. I would love to see some of the photos that were entered in as evidence in the case as well.
April 29, 2017
As a recipient of the Francis M Dowd Memorial Scholarship, I knew that it was in memory of a high ranking manager at Raytheon who had passed away but I knew no other details. By chance I came across a reference to this book in one of UMass's publications. I was interested in learning more about the man whose Memorial scholarship helped to fund my engineering degree at UMass. Especially given that I also work at Raytheon. I was saddened to learn that his death was under such tragic circumstances. After reading the book, I was even more honored to have received a scholarship in his memory. The book itself took a while for me to get into, but once the trial was underway it became a quick read and not easy to put down. I just wish the unfortunate event the book is based on had never occurred.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews