Not Guilty

by Patricia MacDonald

When Keely Bennett's world is shattered by the suicide of her beloved husband, Richard, she and her nine-year-old son Dylan have to start over. Her late husband's childhood friend, Mark Weaver, helps Keely settle Richard's affairs and sweeps her into a whirlwind romance -- and eventually a comfortable suburban lifestyle that includes marriage and a beautiful baby girl.
The darkness that clouded Keely's past has all but vanished. Yet Dylan, now a teenager, remains distant, brooding and resentful of his stepfather and baby sister, Abby. Then history repeats itself, and her life is once again thrown into chaos. But Keely's nightmare is just beginningŠfor the authorities are looking for a murderer, and they already have a prime suspect: Dylan.
Refusing to believe her son is a killer, Keely vows to clear his name. But the prosecutor has a personal stake in seeing Dylan convicted -- and her pleas for help from the police fall on deaf ears. To save her son, Keely must rely on herself. But she is far from alone; someone is watching her every move. When her investigation threatens to uncover a conspiracy of secrets and corruption, she is suddenly plunged into the path of danger -- and into the sights of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to ensure the truth stays buried forever....
Seamlessly weaving a psychological portrait of the bond between a mother and son with the breathless intrigue of a murder mystery, Not Guilty is a novel that finds Patricia MacDonald at the height of her celebrated powers.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Crime

464 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Patricia MacDonald is the author of several psychological suspense novels set in small towns. MacDonald grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut and has a master's degree from Boston College. Before writing her own novels she was a book editor and was once an editor for a soap opera magazine in New York. She is married to writer Art Bourgeau. They live in Cape May, New Jersey and have one daughter.

Her first novel, The Unforgiven, published in 1981, received an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. Secret Admirer (1995) won the literary prize at the 1997 Deauville Film Festival in France, where MacDonald is consistently a number one bestseller. She’s also been awarded the prize for literature at the International Forum of Cinema and Literature in Monaco.

Reviews

[Rahma.Mrk · Rating 4 out of 5]

quand une amie me donnée cet roman.
j'ai hésiteé pls jours avant de le lire.
Surtt que les premiers pages sont un peu lourds et ilya pas une vraie crime.
Mais au fur à mesure des pages surtout après la tentative de suicide de son fils.
les événements sont accélérés et tu ne peux plus quitter le roman surtout que plusieurs personnages sont suspectées.
Le suspense psychologique.
Roman parle d'une femme" keely" qui trouve son mari suicidée sans laisser un mot et son fils âgée de 9 ans pres de lui.

Aprés 5 ans elle marie de l'ami de son premier mari "Marc" avocat célèbre llors d'une sortie de "kelly "faire course.
"Marc" est mort en essayant de sauver son petite fille " Abby"malgré qui ne sait pas nagé.

Suite a cet accident ils ont trouver grille de piscine ouvert et ils ont blâmer son fils "Dylan"
qui souffert de dépression.,
Puis il a fait une tentative de suicide en laissant une seule mot "Maman je ferme la grille".
Après cet mot,l'objectif de la mère est de battre pour montre l'innocent de son fils.
lors de ce démarche elle va découvrit la raison vraie de mort de son premier mari et s'ilya un lien entre les meurtres?

Comment on peut changer notre avis sur l'autre dans un seul jour de regret à le paix d'avoir mourir?
Comment les apparences peuvent être trompant?
Pour l'amour de nos enfants sommes nous capable de risquer le mort ou même tuer quelqu'un.?.



عندما اعطتني صديقتي الرواية. ترددت كثيرا في قراءة.
خاصة ان صفحات الاولى كانت رتيبة و ليس هناك جريمة قتل حقيقية .
ثم مع تقدم بالقراءة و خاصة بعد محاولة انتحار إبنها.
تسارعات الاحداث و لم استطيع الإبتعاد عنها
خاصة ان هناك عدة اشخاص مشبوه فيهم و دراسة نفسية كل شخصية.
كانت روعة.كان تشويق بولوسي و نفسي.
الرواية تتحدث على إمراة "كيلي " تجد زوجها منتحرا؛ دون كتابة اي كلمة و بقرب من ابنه الذي عمره 9سنوات.
و بعد 5سنوات تزوجت صديق زوجها المتوفي محام مشهور.
في يوم تخرج لتسوق فتعود لتجد زوجها محام متوفي وهو يحاول إنقاذ ابنتهم .
و الغريب في امر ان زوجها لا يعرف سباحة .

بعد هذا الحادث و جد باب المسبح مفتوح و القي لوم على إبنها.
فيصبح هدف الام هو نضال لاثبات براءة إبنها و بحث على حقيقة الفاعل.
في هذه الرائعة.
ستجد نفسك تسأل سؤال مركزي:
هل افرح يموت احدهم،هل هذا شعور طبيعي ؟
هل حبنا الامومي له حدود؟
حين نقف في لحظة بين فعل صواب و الأصوب ماذا نختار؟
هذه رواية سبب عشقي لهذه كاتبة .

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Guilty by Patricia MacDonald is a 2002 release published by Pocket Books.

Keely's first husband Richard committed suicide after suffering with migraine headaches to the point of agony. Richard's long time friend, Mark arrives and works with Keely to get an insurance settlement for her and her young son, Dylan.
Keely and Mark fall in love and marry, then have a daughter. Life should be perfect for Keely, but Dylan is withdrawn, moody, and defiant. Then the worst nightmare Keely could imagine happens. Her second husband, Mark is found dead in the swimming pool and Dylan was the prime suspect.
Keely's life turns upside down as she works to prove her son's innocence.

Mark's former fiance , a desperate social worker and an over zealous detective all try their best to make Keely look like a bad mother and to make Dylan look guilty.
The only thing Keely knows to do is to find out who was responsible for Mark's death. As she digs into Mark's life, she discovers she never knew Mark at all. She also finds that her first husband was also not what he seemed.

I enjoyed this novel. I love suspense novels with lots of secrets and suspects. We never knew who to trust here. All the people in the novel had secrets. Some were major game changers and others were more benign, but after awhile, Keely can't trust anyone but herself.
A good mystery, great suspense. Overall a B+

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keely's 1st husband committs suicide and she finds her 8 year old boy next to his body.
Keely then gets remarried to a husband that her boy is not fond of.
Next thing you know her 2nd husband is dead too.
Could her boy have caused both of these deaths?
Or is there someone out to get revenge on Keely?
A good book that kept me flipping the pages.
I wish the end would have been a little better.

[Margarida Sequeira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que livro incrível. Valeu a pena ler uma edicão com letra muito pequenina. Gosto destes livros que a história está tão bem urdida e arquitetada, que tu não desconfias em minima hipótese quem seja o assassino!
Gostei muito da humanidade e da sensibilidade da autora.

[Lucie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm having trouble connecting with the protagonist. She acts like The current event is something everybody has occur to them. I really don't like Dylan so far. Although this book did become interesting still wasn't one of my favorites. I felt that the characterization of Dylan could've been better defined. If she would've somehow made him seem like a good kid it would've been easier to connect to him. There wasn't any previous stories about him to make you connect to him. I really didn't like the protagonist pretty much the whole way through. It was hard to sympathize with her. She seemed quite self-centered most of the time. Towards the end it made you think that the author was setting up her to begin dating Dan. Overall I felt this book could've been better. Some of the stories were not completely resolved at the end.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd say this is a 3.5- it was a good read and definitely an ending I didn't see coming! I think it was a bit long though and I was kind of annoyed by some of the characters. I would read another book from this author.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak female lead

[Catrìona Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this and was gripped throughout but I feel there were a few questions left unanswered. Has kept me thinking about the book though so maybe intentional!

[Mrs J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unputdownable

Keely and her son Dylan have had tragedy in their life. When her first husband shoots himself she didn’t expect to be rescued from grief by Mark. With a new husband, a new child and home she doesn’t expect more tragedy but soon she is caught up in a greater mystery and she has to fight to defend her child, to keep him safe.
A great thriller. One threat after another keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. The clever plot leads you down one path and then another and the final twist is unexpected. A few hints tantalise but only picked up in retrospect. I could not put this down as the tension and plot picked up and I had to read to the end. Clever and skilful plotting. Highly recommended.

[Lynda Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a few books by this author I've either bought or got on free downloads so thought it high time I finally read one !! Till I got halfway through I was enjoying it but then I don't know what happened but it's like someone else started to write it for her instead. The things her characters suddenly said or did were just totally unbelievable and didn't ring true in the least. Like a DA's receptionist would describe visitors as cranks. Then a social worker makes a home visit but upon being offered a drink says she's not there for refreshments and then proceeds to touch her client's bedsheets and lift her jewellery from its box !!! Just wouldn't happen.....her neighbour suddenly altered character altogether and became this awful, sarcastic, unpleasant piece of work, when she hadn't been at all till this point. Keely panicked abut Abby being at dog eye-level, yet the previous day she had been crawling around with the dogs and in their food bowls. It was really very odd indeed and put me off altogether. I reached 54% and a psychiatrist had prescribed mood elevators to Keely's son without her being present or giving her consent and I finally called it a day. It was like the author perhaps packed in writing this for 6 months then picked it up again but forgot the characters she had created altogether so gave them all revised personalities !!
At one point Keely was considering the price of a bracelet and thinking she may need to sell it...then when she was in the jeweller's she is saying she'll treasure it forever......
There's a note right at the beginning that states the book's written in British English, which I found a little odd as it's set in the States.....but it ISN'T......we had the usual realized or criticizing, etc......so that was quite peculiar altogether as well.
I made mention 15% in of being cheesed off at hearing how often homework was referred to and it happened again and again. Most tiresome. It ended up being THE most overused word in the book for me ! I have always wondered why Americans capitalise the word Realtor and looked it up this time out of interest and apparently it's a trademark !! Who knew ! I did spot a few errors...speechmarks where nobody was talking and a comma used not a fullstop and writing leaped not leapt......another American way of writing I notice they do a lot.
As I already mentioned, the story was intriguing but was sadly ruined by the dialogue halfway through. It's a rare thing I give up on a book this far in, I have to say. I will try one of the others by her I've bought and just hope it isn't set out quite as strangely.

[NK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great suspense. Many suspects and murders. It holds your interest.

[Alyssia Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Guilty started out strong, but lost it's way by the mid point and I found the ending to be out of the left field and unbelievable. It would have likely been a better novel had MacDonald kept to the central themes of family and protecting the son from the accusations. instead it devolved into something almost farcelike by the end.

The premise of the book is interesting. Keely's second husband dies in strange circumstances after her first husband committed suicide. Her son, seven or eight when his dad died and mid teens at this point, comes under suspicion by the police due to the fractious relationship between the two. I enjoyed the family drama found in the novel and the depiction of the surly teenager who really isn't making his case any better was well done. Where it fell down was how things spiralled and the finale.

I find it difficult to believe that the prosecutor would have quite so much influence over quite so many people. The police, maybe. But when her circle of influence expands to doctors and social workers, making the latter in particular behave completely unprofessionally, the novel starts to unstick itself. The ending was set up reasonably well throughout the novel, however it lacked something for me and meant the book as a whole wasn't worth the payoff. It felt like the author needed an 'interesting' resolution at the expense of being believable and reasonable.

All in all, there's a nugget of gold in here somewhere. But there's quite a lot of dross to get through to find it.

[Janet Mahlum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not 4 stars, but better than 3.5 stars. The first third of the book just dragged. I was about to give up on it. I was SO tired of this rebellious, sullen, angst-filled teen-age boy I just wanted to scream, "All right, already! I get it! He's an angry teenager who hates the world." But enter Miss District Attorney - evil, wicked, Cruella, with shades of Pip's Miss Haversham and the action picked up. I spent an Icelandic Christmas Eve, staying up way past my bedtime to finish the book. There were an awful lot of coincidences and a lot of events strung together necessary to make the ending unsuspected yet plausible. What are the odds that a young widow living far away from her deceased husband's home would end up marrying one of his best friends. Widowed a second time, she meets a man who was also a friend of her first husband. Third time's charm? They might have to start calling her "The Black Widow."

[Christine Rennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Guilty by Patricia MacDonald is an interesting book about a woman, Keely Bennett, who is widowed twice. Her husbands were friends who grew up together.
Her first husband, Richard committed suicide, his son Dylan found his body, when he was nine.
Keely, then married Mark, who later drowned in the pool. He couldn’t swim and it appeared he was trying to save his young daughter,who was presumed to have fallen in.
When her son, Dylan is accused of causing Mark’s death, Keely decides to found out what really happens. She is later to wonder if she has done the right thing.
The storyline is interesting and the characters are realistic. I enjoyed reading this book.
Recommended

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was called a romantic thriller. Romantic is another way of saying the female protagonist is an idiot, who has to be constantly rescued by whoever is her Prince Charming at the time. Did not find Keely to be interesting or believable or even likeable. For a character who was supposedly a former junior high teacher, she certainly was clueless about 14 y.o. boys. Too many episodes throughout the book that were unrealistic. The plot line was weak and implausible. Can't recommend this read. Disappointed, as I've enjoyed other books by this author. Hope this is just an off entry for her!

[Romaine Heart · Rating 4 out of 5]

How far would you go to protect your troubled teenage son even if you have a few doubts? You want to believe him. At nine yo Dylan stumbled upon his father who had ended his life. Years later his step father was found in the pool.
With the evidence stacked u against Dylan the DA and the police thinks he's involved and they are determined to prove it.
His mother Keely and father-in-law Lucas do everything they can to unravel the mystery surrounding the events. Is Dylan guilty or not guilty?
Mystery, suspense, troubled teen, betrayal and lies.

[Sondra S. Feig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very professional writer, admired by many of us for her original take on psychological, medical,
resulting family issues. However, the main character, a woman whose name appears on almost every page as she attempts to problem-solve with her own investigation(s). She is overused and in some need of less coverage!! There are enough twists here and there, thereby losing a bit of ennui with her
and with her son ----so seeming an unmanageable teenager. However, the reader is rewarded by the ending.

[tim knowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully constructed plot with plenty of surprises and tension until the closing minutes. I enjoyed the plot and admired the character development.

It could have finished up as an (albeit tragic) farce but avoided that pitfall by keeping the reader and the main character credibly mystified until the end.

I don’t give 5 stars often; this is one of those stories that deserves publicity and might make a good movie.

[Ines Parrish · Rating 2 out of 5]

a twisted soap opera

I think this author was writing a script for a terrible soap opera full of bad husbands, unstable teenagers and a terribly naive mother. And don’t forget the baby who played a major but entirely inconsequential role in this endless story about stupidity and hubris. The totally unnecessary and excruciatingly boring minutia was another example of my belief that authors are paid by the word. This is a well respected author. Why write drivel?

[Darjeelingdo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je ne raconterai rien de l’histoire sinon que l’héroïne principale, Keely, n’a vraiment vraiment pas de chance ! (et surtout ne lisez pas la 4 e de couverture ..)

Un bon petit polar «  à l’ancienne » , du genre suspense psychologique, comme sait si bien les trousser Patricia MacDonald. C’est efficace, on tourne les pages et on a envie de savoir la fin après avoir échafaudé pas mal d’hypothèses… Un bon moment de lecture/détente.

[Lydia Redferne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never thought I would be able to review this book as it sucked the life out of me.

Terrible protagonist - so weak it was frustrating to read.
So cliche - I can’t count how many deaths everyone had experienced.
Every single character in this book had lost someone to suicide or murder, and frankly it’s just unrealistic.

I felt the ending of it was beyond far fetched. I get it’s fiction but when it’s so far removed from reality it becomes a chore to read.

[crlvn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un bon roman avec du suspens et des événements inattendus. Cependant j’ai eu du mal, au début, à vraiment rentrer dans l’histoire car je trouvais les actions un peu lentes à arriver mais au fur et à mesure je me suis retrouvée à ne plus pouvoir me séparer du livre tant que je ne l’avais pas terminé.

[Michelle Donofrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keely has bad taste in husbands. Her first husband commits suicide. Her second husband drowns. She soon after finds out that the two men were childhood friends. The connections prove to be ill fated. Keelys son Dylan is implicated in the murder and a jealous ex fiancé is hell bent on revenge. All is not what it seems.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get this book read but life slowed down so I could get back to reading. I really enjoyed this book. At first I struggled to get interested but then the story started to get interesting. Didn't really expect the end though.

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt that the ending was a but rushed. I felt that I didn't have time to grasp where it was all going and then the book just seemed to end. It did keep my guessing up until the end and was very suspenseful.

[Alix O’Roarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Loved that there was so many different story lines that all culminated together. The blurb planted a seed that was deconstructed after reading & I enjoyed that at any point I didn’t know what was going to happen next.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

48% through and the lack of reality is too great. A social worker who criticises someone for being wealthy? Who rifles through their jewellery and bedding? Others on the public sector showing zero empathy?

Awful book.

[Anna Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not bad.
Just so weird not to have omnipresent cellphones since the book was written in 2002. Another world.
I felt the characters alive, the writing is agreeable and quick, the story keeps you guessing without being too convoluted and the ending is unexpected enough.

[Colin Parnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good in the end

Lots of bad luck in Keely's life but after some twists and turns all panned out okay. Perhaps just a few too many words that slowed down the excitement as the story unfolded.

[Tracey A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book quite hard to stick with. I couldn’t really connect with the main characters even though they were well rounded. I love a psychological thriller but this one wasn’t for me unfortunately. I have read this author in the past and will read more by her in the future.