Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Madapple
    Unavailable
    Madapple
    Unavailable
    Madapple
    Audiobook11 hours

    Madapple

    Written by Christina Meldrum

    Narrated by Kirsten Potter

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    THE SECRETS OF the past meet the shocks of the present.
    Aslaug is an unusual young woman. Her mother has brought her up in near isolation, teaching her about plants and nature and language-but not about life. Especially not how she came to have her own life, and who her father might be.

    When Aslaug's mother dies unexpectedly, everything changes. For Aslaug is a suspect in her mother's death. And the more her story unravels, the more questions unfold. About the nature of Aslaug's birth. About what she should do next.

    About whether divine miracles have truly happened. And whether, when all other explanations are impossible, they might still happen this very day.

    Addictive, thought-provoking, and shocking, Madapple is a page-turning exploration of human nature and divine intervention-and of the darkest corners of the human soul.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 13, 2008
    ISBN9780739367308
    Unavailable
    Madapple
    Author

    Christina Meldrum

    Christina Meldrum received her Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and political science from the University of Michigan. After working in grassroots development in Africa, she earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She has worked for the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Switzerland, and as a litigator at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and is on the advisory board of Women of the World Investments.

    Related to Madapple

    Related audiobooks

    YA Social Themes For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Spiritual Science

      Dec 15, 2019

      Sasha Sagan was brought up in a secular Jewish household. When she was 15 she begged her mother for Christmas presents and a tree. “Although I received a very flattering forest-green pullover… I felt like a fraud,” she writes. Now, she has a husband

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Unauthorised Version

      Mar 28, 2021

      The Unauthorised Version
      13 min read

    • Article

      'The Hazel Wood' Has Few Uses For Enchantment

      Jan 30, 2018

      In Melissa Albert's dark take on fairy tales, 17-year-old Alice has spent her entire life on the run from her family legacy: a terrifying mythical world created by her grandmother, a famous author.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Postmenopausal Fairy Tale

      Feb 4, 2019

      The Postmenopausal Fairy Tale
      9 min read

    • Article

      Service We’re Pleased To Be Of

      Sep 1, 2021

      Service We’re Pleased To Be Of
      6 min read

    • Article

      Spooky Storyteller

      Oct 5, 2022

      Spooky Storyteller
      2 min read

    • Article

      Knock Me Off My Pedestal!

      Dec 14, 2022

      Knock Me Off My Pedestal!
      3 min read

    • Article

      The New Arrival

      Oct 1, 2020

      Maya had never visited the public library before, and at this rate it looked like she never would. She knew it was around here somewhere, but the fog was so thick she could barely see her sneakers. Putting off her homework had been a mistake, but get

      6 min read

    • Article

      Coming To Grief

      Apr 3, 2022

      Coming To Grief
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Wind Child

      Jan 26, 2022

      RELEASED 3 FEBRUARY 172 pages | Paperback Author Gabriela Houston Publisher Uclan Publishing Little Mara is a disappointment to her family. Not to her dad: he’s human, albeit a very poorly one, and he loves her deeply. No, she’s a letdown to her moth

      1 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Feb 18, 2022

      As a mother and grandmother I can imagine nothing worse than fashioning a coffin, even if it’s an environmentally friendly biodegradable one, for a beloved child (YOU, 27 January). However, Laura weaving a coffin from weeping willows branches for her

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Silence of Witches

      Dec 10, 2019

      The Silence of Witches
      6 min read

    • Article

      Wolf Sister

      May 7, 2020

      Wolf Sister
      10 min read

    • Article

      WORLD of WONDERS

      Aug 12, 2020

      WORLD of WONDERS
      17 min read

    • Article

      The Bath

      Jan 5, 2021

      The Bath
      3 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Note

      Sep 23, 2023

      Books can begin in mysterious ways. My latest, A Journey of Faith: A Mother’s Alzheimer’s, a Son’s Love and His Search for Answers, began with a collar light I couldn’t remember turning on when I let Gracie out on a moonless night in the Berkshires.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Books To Enjoy With Your Family

      Dec 9, 2018

      Books To Enjoy With Your Family
      2 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Letter

      Nov 24, 2021

      Editor’s Letter
      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters & Messages

      Dec 27, 2022

      ALINE ALEXANDER NEWMAN TURIN, NEW YORK I love snail mail. So when a handwritten envelope arrived bearing an unfamiliar return address, I was intrigued. “What’s this about?” I wondered as I opened it. The sender, Margaret Ratcliff, wrote that she enjo

      2 min read

    • Article

      Finding A Way Home

      Oct 21, 2019

      Finding A Way Home
      4 min read

    Reviews for Madapple

    3.5/5

    199 ratings33 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Oh dear. Where to begin?

      I’ve been reading lots of buzz about this book for a while. Reviews have been calling it “groundbreaking” and unique, the best debut in years. It might be nominated for a Printz.
      For the first couple of chapters, I was ready to agree with the views. It sucked me in. Aslaug, living in isolation for so long with her sickly, slightly unhinged mother, seemed a compelling character. When he mother dies and she is forced, or set free, into the world, it is very exciting, and you really have no idea what is going to happen to her. Anything can happen to her. The flash-forwards give you tantalizing clues, but as the present starts to catch up with the future, it all gets bogged down and the story gets lost amidst long symbolic descriptions of botany and characters start page long ramblings about religion and spirituality.

      I’m not a religious person. Having grown up “culturally catholic”, I tend to roll my eyes at anything new -agey or spiritual. That wasn’t my problem with this book, though. The plot seems to slow down when Aslaung finds her relatives, and investigates her mother’s studies and her own mysterious birth. And it never picks up. It was frustrating, because I wanted to see Aslaung react to this big new world, and all of the people in it.
      I agree with celebrating a book for its craft and its artistry, and appreciating all those beautiful flowery words, but I also think story/plot and character are vitally important, especially in a young adult book.
    • 2/5
      No. Just no. What I thought was going to be a murder mystery turned into a strange religious/sex assault tale that I just wasn't a fan of.
    • 5/5
      All around great book. Very thought-provoking. I devoured it in one sitting.
    • 2/5




      This must have been on my list because it takes place in Maine. Little did I know it would be populated by over-educated evangelical totally batshit Danes. The discussions about poisonous herbs and gnostic gospels were kind of interesting but it was all a little too Lars Von Triers for me.
    • 4/5
      Narrated by Kirsten Potter. As the story unfolds and goes back and forth between Aslaug's past and her court trial of the present, you're never quite sure where the story will go. How does her sheltered and unconventional upbringing tie in to the aunt and cousins she reconnects with after her mother's death? Is Aslaug a cold-blooded murderer or unwittingly caught in a trap of cultural differences? Mysticism, religion, exotic plants, incest, and family dysfunction weave the strands of this unusual and intriguing story; Kirsten Potter's superb narration hypnotizes and draws you into the mystery.
    • 3/5
      Hallucinatory prose peels back layer by layer to reveal things hidden in plain sight. Very well done, if a little dense. A lot of botanical information and some fascinating comparative religion are threaded through the story, which is more like a mystery than not. I can't think of a way to describe it other than hallucinatory, which I've already said. Strong themes that will be sure to get this banned from school libraries. Worthwhile and certifiably strange.
    • 2/5
      This review is for the audio version of Madapple read by Kirsten Potter. The narration of the book was excellent. I have listened to several other titles read by her and she always does a great job. The book itself while well written was bizarre and hard to follow. Madapple is targeted to ages 14 to 17 but I don't feel that it would hold the interest of that age group because of the slow pacing and the overly complicated subject matter.
    • 3/5
      This was a sort of bizarre story. Madapple takes place in a Maine I don’t really recognize. Aslaug and her mother live in almost complete isolation in what I presume to be in-land Maine (which, believe it or not, is far different than coastal Maine), living off the land and eschewing all modern conveniences. Aslaug is barely allowed to read, let alone go to school, go shopping, or watch TV. Before her mother’s death, she doesn’t even know she has family living very nearby, and she discovers them rather accidentally. Whether or not this is a good thing is best left up to the reader.We learn rather quickly that Aslaug is on trial for not only the death of her mother, but for burning down the church where she lived and some people inside. I enjoyed the structure of the novel as it bounced back and forth between the past and the present, revealing tiny pieces of the puzzle along the way. Things the reader assumes early in the story turn out to be far from the truth.The author connects each chapter from the past with a particular piece of botanical knowledge. I learned about a lot of plants that I never knew existed, but sometimes there was a little too much detail when really, I just wanted to get on with the story.Overall, I thought this was a really interesting book. It’s not light, and it’s not happy, and it touches upon not only the relationship between religion and science, but on the relationships between mothers and daughters, rape, incest, and abuse. If your book club can get past the fact that it’s technically a young adult book, I think Madapple is a great novel to stimulate discussion.
    • 3/5
      Long story - satisfying ending - too much detail on plants.
    • 2/5
      I found this book to be interesting, engaging, and suspenseful, but I thought it frequently dragged (get to the point already! was my constant thought), and the court sessions--there to provide tension and foreshadowing--broke up the action in an irritating way. Also, I think there is a point when we can safely say "There is too much incest here".But my biggest problem with this book was when the main character turns up pregnant. She has a vague memory of sleeping with her cousin, which she thought was a dream; upon realizing it really happened, she (correctly) identifies it as rape. So far so good. But then it turns out that her male cousin didn't drug her, her female cousin did! He just slept with her while she was drugged (keep in mind that everyone else in this book can tell when people are high). Somehow this makes everything okay, so she and the male cousin go to live happily ever after. I was disgusted.
    • 5/5
      Madapple alternates between the narration of Aslaug, the protagonist and a court trial. Aslaug is on trial for the murder of her aunt and cousin. This book blends religion, science, mythology and botany. It almost seems Meldrum is trying too hard to weave separate elements, but I think she suceeded in creating a story which left me consistently guessing. I think part of the beauty of this book is the revelation of the story. We don't learn everything about Aslaug at once, it's revealed little by little. Also Meldrum was awesome in that she did more showing then telling, and I certainly appreciate that in a book.Meldrum's voice is distinct. In the parts which were told through Aslaug's eyes, it was like seeing the world through a new lens. Aslaug was raised in isolation, so clearly she's got a different world view than us internet-denizens. I think this was definately a unique YA reading experience. I would not recommend this book for the middle-grade/younger YA set as it contains some very dark and disturbing themes. However, if you are looking for a break from the usual who-hearts-who fare, check this book out, you won't regret it.
    • 4/5
      Aslaug was raised in relative isolation by her intense, severe, intelligent mother Maren. Homeschooled, unknown to any family she might still possess, unacquainted with anyone other than a secretive neighbor, Aslaug is naïve and innocent about the workings of the greater world. Raised in a mirror-less home, she barely even knows the shape of her own face. What she does know, however, is plants. Herblore, herbcraft, which plants are good to eat, which plants are poison, which are medicine…all of this colors Aslaug’s view of the world, informing her understanding of events unfolding around her. When her mother dies, therefore, Aslaug reacts in a way appropriate to her upbringing, but not so very appropriate in the eyes of the law. When released into the custody of a social services professional, Aslaug manages not only to escape, but to find her way to a place she’d only been once before…the evangelical Christian church run by her aunt. There she discovers something else shocking: her mother Maren claimed to have been a virgin when she became pregnant, and her cousins Susanne and Rune believe that Aslaug herself is a blessed child destined to birth the next Messiah. Soon, swept up by their fervor…so similar and yet so different from that of her mother…Aslaug herself is uncertain what she believes or who she really is. Told partially in flash-backs, and interspersed with testimony from Aslaug’s eventual trial for suspected murder, this enthralling and deftly suspenseful story is also beautiful and poignant. Meldrum manages to give a delightful new twist to the old coming-of-age story.
    • 4/5
      I know this book is excellent - it is beautifully written, it doesn't have a clichéd moment in it, and the story is both well-paced and thoughtful. But I found it very difficult to read (or rather, listen to,) I had to put it aside several times, disturbed by minor events to the point of nausea. It speaks to the power of the characters that I was unable to distance myself from the story enough to read it comfortably. I would give this to mature teen gothic fans, and adults looking for atmospheric mysteries.
    • 3/5
      For the first time, i just can't seem to find the words to summarize or explain what this story is about because it was just... WOW. I think i can start off by saying that i am VERY SURPRISED that this book is actually a teen book because it has A LOT of MATURE content within it. There was so much going on in this book that i don't think a young teen (13-15) could understand half of the story. Madapple is not your average story. I have to admit that Christina Meldrum really put a lot of effort in writing this story because it's very different from any book that I've ever read, she did a lot of research for this book and her writing is deep. Madapple is a story that challenges human nature, religion and identity.The story is mainly about Aslaug on trial, accused for the death of her Mother, Aunt, and Cousin. The story also shifts time periods, it goes from the present with Aslaug in court then into Aslaug's past, with her narrating her story. In the past, the reader learns of Aslaug's life with her mother. They lived in isolation, away from people and their advance way of life. Aslaug and her mother lived in a simple matter,collecting different plants and herbs to use for many things, such as food and medicine. Aslaug's mother teaches her about everything. Religion, science and health are a few of the main topics that Aslaug learns from her. But there are a lot of things, ideas and questions that Aslaug doesn't fathom, such as her birth. Her mother never mentioned anything about her father, let alone that she even had a father. Her mother believed that Aslaug's birth was a virgin birth. It is this sub plot within the story that will definitely challenge the reader's belief if they are religious or if they are Christian. I'd like to point out that if you are either one of the two, then this book is NOT FOR YOU. You might get offended because this book really challenges the Christian Faith. I'm a Christian and i admit that i felt uncomfortable reading this book because of how it views the Christian religion. On a good note though, i have to give credit to the author for writing such a refreshing yet bone chilling story. Aslaug's story is shocking and tragic. You will find yourself angry, sad, curious, and confused reading this story. This is exactly why this review was a bit difficult to write because there is a lot to this story both emotionally and plot wise. I would recommend reading this book if you are looking for a book to pull you in the moment you start to read and if you are looking for a different kind of story to read, something that does not involve cliche's or trends within YA literature.
    • 3/5
      Aslaug is kept very isolated from society by her mother who claims she is a miracle brought into this life from a 'virgin birth'. As the story progresses Aslaug's mother dies from illness and she is thrown into an unknown world to her. A world where she is believed to have committed arson,murder and begins to question her own sanity as her own miracle is put up to trial. Weird book!! Good in a way that is hard for me to review. While alot of the parts of the book I could have done without , the lessons in botany for example, I don't think the book could have been told without them. As this was Aslaug's life, it's what she knew. Being sheltered and reared by her mother in a homeschooling environment where the main focus was on science, history, mythology, legends and religion. Her whole life was plants and flowers. They were used in nourishment as well as medicine. So, there was no way to take these 'lessons' out of the book, as it was so much a part of the story. But those sections bored me so. The rest of the book clipped along for me. And at the end I was glad I stuck it out. It wasn't a OMG that was so good book for me, as others have found it, but, it was thought provoking
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. It is well written and a real page turner! Interesting plant facts and religious history theories surrounding the characters make for a great and different kind of novel. I will definately read this book again.
    • 4/5
      The thing that originally attracted me to this book was the cover. Look at it! So dark and mysterious...and the description only added to the appeal. It seemed like an intriguing read.And it was, but not exactly what I was expecting. From the way it sounded, I thought it would be further back in time, and possibly with some magic involved. Instead what I got was botany, incest, religion, philosophy, murder, and mythology. This story was very complex, with too parallel story lines really, Aslaug's life after her mother's death and Alsaug's tiral. The writing was beautiful, and while I didn't find it exactly thrilling, it was compelling. Also, very informative. I learned a lot of interesting trivia. The characters were multi-dimensional, but hardly likable. They all had their issues and it was hard to predict what they were going to do next. There were some parts that were so frustrating! I wanted to step in and yell at the characters and tell them they were stupid, or speak up for them. And those lawyers? Nobody on the stand could get a single word in before those wackjobs cut them off. I'm conflicted about my feelings for this book. Its definitely not for everyone, but I do recommend you try it.
    • 5/5
      Aslaug spent her life in near isolation with her mother, so when her mother dies she's not sure what to do. Armed with a suitcase full of money, she heads off in search of her mysterious father. She finds instead her aunt, a preacher in a Pentecostal sect, and cousins, and begins to piece together the mystery of her life. But just when she gets some answers and begins to feel like she has a home, she gets pregnant and things start to fall apart.
    • 4/5
      Aslaug lives a sheltered life with her mother. She is thrust into a world she knows nothing about when mother dies. Hoping to find her father, Aslaug instead meets her long lost cousins and aunt who run a church. Commonly accepted Christian doctrine is challenged throughout the text, mainly by cousin Sanne who believes that Aslaug and her mother have been given a special gift from God. Chapters alternate between Aslaug's inner story and the outer story that comes out during a murder trial. Bibliography of additional reading on the topic of religion included at the end.
    • 1/5
      This mystery jumps from a present court case where Aslaug is the defendant in a double murder case and the past where she remembers her childhood with her single mother and then later her single aunt and two cousins when her mother dies. Her mother was into homegrown drugs while her aunt is a pastor and her cousins deal with their own problems. By the time Aslaug meets her aunt and cousins, she has already been cleared in the death of her mother, but when she is found outside the burning church where her aunt and Sanne are found inside dead, she is put on trial and the death of her mother is again brought up. My first problem was the neighbor witness in the court case who thought he needed to use expletives while answering questions on the stand. Until the latter half of the book, they are minor expletives and infrequently scattered through testimonies. The real problem begins about 3/5 of the way through where Aslaug dreams about her cousin Rune spending time with her after being drugged by her cousin, Susanne (Sanne). When she turns up pregnant, she accuses Rune of rape and worse expletives are scattered throughout the remaining pages. While I found the book on the YALSA site, I cannot recommend it.
    • 1/5
      The cover of Madapple looks very intriguing but the contents are messy overkill. After finishing this book, I'm having a very hard time seeing where the rave reviews come from.Aslaug has spent her early life isolated with her sick mother who is so off-balance that she even tacks sheets over the windows to keep the light out. When she wakes to find her mother dead, an attempt to give her a proper burial leads to her arrest. Though cleared of any wrongdoing, Aslaug finds herself completely lost- she has never met any family and doesn't even know who her father is. She follows the only clue she has: a building in the next town over that her mother used to drive to and stare at. She takes with a car with no mirrors and a suitcase full of hidden money to try and find her family. Lucky for her, she does end up with family- her aunt and two cousins who run a small church. They take Aslaug in and through her cousin, Sanne, and her mothers notes she finds out about her mother's supposed "virgin birth" and her interest in a variety of ancient religions. Asalug also begins to get close with her other cousin, Rune, having vivid and intimate dreams about him. After several months living with them Aslaug begins to feel ill- a trip to the doctor reveals that she is pregnant though she does not remember having intercourse. Is Aslaug following in the steps of her mother?Okay, so in a summary it seems like it could be interesting. But really, this story is so very disjointed! The chapters alternate between Aslaug's first person account of what happened and a trial.The story is working at you from both ends in reverse directions but I feel like it gets more muddled than intriguing. Meldrum is an attorney and it shows through a little too clearly; the courtroom drama is very lawyer dramatic but not very teenager dramatic under the very last moments. I don't see Aslaug as a character that teens can easily latch onto unless they're really into ancient religious sects or botany- this is partially due to her isolation, but this is not a book that discusses an isolated girl's transition into the modern world. Instead, it is an outsider transferring herself into another group of outsiders that teens also will find it hard to relate to. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone under 16- the language is dense, the courtroom parts somewhat confusing (I say this as a former law student!), and the issues are heavy (multiple degrees of incest, drug use, poisoning, teen pregnancy, death, kidnapping, a communal family- the list goes on and on). I did not find this to be an easy read on any level- it was hard to get into. It's definitely different from other books that were published last year, but I don't necessarily think that translates into accolades. Perhaps I'm alone on this one!
    • 4/5
      Aslaug had been raised by her mother the near isolation of a small town in Maine. The two sustained themselves with through the forest behind their home and only ventured into town for rare supplies. Aslaug's mother taught her everything about religion, mythology, biology, and botony. She was her life, until her mother unexpectedly died.Now Aslaug is on her own, with no friends or family and no understanding of how the outside world works. She discovers her long lost aunt who is a preacher at a small rural church. While staying with them Aslaug discovers that her mother suspected that Aslaug was a virgin birth. As Aslaug uncovers her mother's and her own past, she discover's things about the family that she never wished she knew.This is a crazy, mindbending and amazingly written book. I could not believe how well organized the story was and how much I learned to love characters that had no obvious redeeming qualities.
    • 5/5
      OMG! This book was so well written and the plot was riveting. It is for older young adults since it deals with sex. I really enjoyed the different alternative religions that are brought in to the plot.
    • 4/5
      Told in alternating chapters between Aslaug's past and the present in a courtroom transcript, we learn how Aslaug lived with her mother, who claimed she had been born a virgin birth. There was sporadic homeschooling out of books her mother edited, harvesting of plants for food and an otherwise strange existence. Eventually, her mother dies of cancer and Aslaug relies on one memory from her past to bring her to her aunt's house. She's searching for her father, but finds an aunt and two cousins instead. There Aslaug keeps trying to find who she is and where she comes from, especially after she somehow becomes pregnant too.
    • 5/5
      This book went back and forth between the life of a girl who was brought up far differently than the rest of the world and the trial she is standing. The trial itself is a bunch of questions and answers, some causing the reader to ask more questions about what really happened in this girl's life and why she is on trial. It was really quite a captivating read, making you want to learn more and giving a few twists to keep you on your toes. I sort of figured out what really happened with the hints, which was a nice feeling that I could pick up on that. That the author left you some clues. I loved the imagery of this book and the feeling of a girl meeting the modern world for the first time. Overall, I couldn't put this book down - I read it in a day.
    • 3/5
      I started trying to listen to this, but found the alternative chapters being flashbacks very confusing. The plot seems to run ahead of it self in the chapters from the court trail vs. the chapters that seemed to be telling the story. I spent much of book being confused and was not satisfied by the ending. The book is about a young girl who is raised in almost complete seclusion from society with her mother. Her mother teaches her sciences and mythologies and leads her to believe she has been immaculately conceived. After her mother dies she finds her aunt and cousins that she never new existed and must find the truth in her life. Overall this book had potential, but I found it to flow poorly and felt confused most of the time.
    • 4/5
      Hmmm. This one was fascinating, though unsettling. Meldrum writes beautifully - lyrical and mysterious and meticulously. Aslaug - the main character - is decidedly strange, and at times unsettling, though with the upbringing she'd had, her strangeness is no surprise. I was fascinated by the talk of religion, and how the basics of Christianity - the Messiah, the virgin birth, the twelve disciples, etc. - all have their roots in so-called "pagan" religions, but less enraptured by the endless talk of plants and herbalism, though Meldrum does a wonderful job of intertwining all the ideas.
    • 3/5
      For most of Madapple, I was wondering what genre I was reading, figuring out about half way through that I was reading a mystery, and the story didn’t wrap up until the very last pages. This book made me feel uncomfortable, but not necessarily in a bad way. It’s mysterious genre combined with the insane perspectives of each characters left me squirming and wondering, like Aslaug, what is fact and what is fiction. It felt like a good representation of how people can get lost in their own worlds, and how it is possible to love and be loved by people who abuse you extraordinarily. This is a good, gothic tale, and though it left me cold and a little frustrated, a can see the appeal for another reader.
    • 5/5
      A thought-provoking, excellent debut novel by Meldrum, "Madapple" tells the story of Aslaug, a girl raised in near isolation in the woods of Maine. After her mother dies, Aslaug moves in with relatives who run a church and have some interesting ideas about Aslaug's birth. Religion, science, knowledge of plants and fantasy vs. reality all play a part in the book. Entwined with a mystery, "Madapple" is one of the most fascinating, unique reads of the year. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Interesting mystery featuring flashbacks to what happened and the protagonist's trial.