Irreparable Damage

by Joseph T. Klempner

It starts with some innocent family fun. Writer Stephen Barrow's divorced wife, involved in a second marriage, has willingly given Barrow the desired custody of their six-year-old daughter, Penny. Father and daughter share a relationship that is tender, poignant, and funny. Their home life in a small upstate New York town is a happy and entirely wholesome one.

One evening Penny, in her bath, delightedly pulls her shampoo-stiffened hair into what she thinks of as the horn of a "unicord," and her father takes her picture. When she "moons" him and says, "Take this one!" to oblige he clicks the shutter, although the roll of film was finished. Or so the mechanically challenged Barrow believed.

The next day, the local pharmacy clerk using the photo machine is shocked by the snapshot, decides Stephen is a child pornographer, and calls the police, who arrest him. That is only the first step in Stephen Barrow's descent into hell. A small-town police chief basking in a "real case," a vengeful ex-wife, a fledgling psychologist who tailors her patients' responses to fit her self-serving preconceptions, a District Attorney facing re-election -- all of these and more push Barrow deeper and deeper into the depths, until everything he has is taken from him, his freedom, his belongings, and most particularly his beloved daughter.

Irreparable Damage is a horror story. Not a horror story of monsters from the deep or roving homicidal psychopaths, but something much worse, something that batters at the readers' defenses. As anyone familiar with Klempner's previous books will know, he is a writer with the talent to bring his story home to his readers. As Irreparable Damage (based on an actual case) unfolds, its threat becomes more and more real. This could happen to anyone. It could happen to you !

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 18, 2002

About the author

His full name is Joseph Teller Klempner, and he is also published as
Joseph Teller , at which web site further biographical information may be found.

Joseph T. Klempner is a former undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Drug Enforcement Agency) and later as a defense attorney in New York City.

Reviews

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book extremely frustrating, which reflects what the protagonist feels. He's accused of producing kiddie porn because he snaps a picture of his young daughter in the bathtub mooning him. He doesn't even think there's film left and has no clue what's going on when he's arrested. What follows is a based on true events story of a guy caught up in a hyper-vigilant state of affairs. The daughter's clearly not being abused, the father's obviously not producing child pronography, and yet he's stuck in the system that decimates his life.

We certainly want laws to protect children from predators but this novel illustrates how a little common sense could go a long way in the course of interpreting laws.

[E. Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a truly suspenseful book I couldn't put down. I would have given it 5 stars, but the ending, although a victory for Stephen Barrow, seemed a bit too much like a Deus Ex Machina. I think it actually would have worked better if it had ended tragically with Barrow getting convicted and thrown in jail. It wouldn't have been what he or his young daughter would have deserved, but tragedies can be just as enjoyable as comedies, and he could have gone on to appeal the conviction (probably by the author adding an epilogue, or writing a sequel).

[Hannah]

11/11/14
Just started this new book and so far it's good! I'm on page 15, and haven't gotten far. The dad is taking harmless little pictures of his daughter in the bath tub currently, as she states she is a "unicord" (Since she is only 6, I believe, she is trying to say "unicorn"). They both laugh, which seems to be very good for a family that has just recently "separated". Then she turns and bends over mooning her dad, and he snaps a picture playfully, believing that the camera was out of roll.
-That's as far as I got for now-

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very quick read as I admit I skipped a lot of the legal jargon. I knew where this was headed but it was an ok read.

I almost didn't read it as I sadly could predict what was going on from the book jacket blurb. Depressing as I wondered how many of us could have behaved differently from Barrow.

[Lisa Blankenship]

One of my favorites!

[Alaric Moras · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing book. The author never skips a beat and is precise in all things. A 3.5 out of 5, actually. Short, concise and moving, it's a lovely book.