Ok, I’ll admit it, I am a Jodi Picoult fan. I discovered her last year, when I bought a book on tape called My Sister’s Keeper. Now I have never been a book on tape kind of kid before. Sure, I jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon and listened to Jim Dale with childish delight (his Doby is the best), but I’ve never considered myself a fan of the medium. But let me tell you, I could never quite get out of the car when I was supposed to each time I listened to it. Picoult has a knack for a story, I’ll tell you. So, I was excited to hear in my “Amish” phase that she wrote a book with an Amish plot. And that is how I came to buy The Plain Truth.

The Plain Truth is a tale of a young Amish teenager, Katie, accused of murdering her own newborn infant. When a distant “English” cousin, Ellie, comes to town, who happens to be a lawyer, relations push her into defending the Amish teen. Katie and Ellie are unlikely allies, but in a time of desperate need for both, they are thrown together in way that will change their lives.

The Plain Truth is not what I expected. It seems people are far more fascinated by Amish kids gone wrong, than in the lifestyle itself. I suspect this is because all non-Amish believe that every Amish person secretly wishes to be in our world, so seeing such a kid go crazy is much more interesting. I mean what could be so appealing about the 18^th century Amish lifestyle. Please note my intense sarcasm.

Picoult falls into the category above, spending more time exploring the life of an Amish teenager gone wrong, then exploring the Amish lifestyle itself. Therefore, there is nothing so fascinating in that aspect of the tale. And I am guessing because she thought the Amish bit would be such a draw, she didn’t put the same work into the main characters that she usually does. None of them are very fleshed out, and their histories and interactions are fairly bland. I found myself just not caring.

Over all, the book is an OK murder mystery/court room drama, but having read 3 other Piccoult novels, it is not up to her usual standards.

Grade: C-