After
by Marita Golden
ISBN: 9780767917780

When a police officer pulls over a young man for driving without his headlights on, he mistakes the man's cellphone for a gun and fatally shoots him. The officer descends through a maze of self-recrimination and shame; his wife and children leave him; and he struggles to put his life back together after the life-altering mistake.

After - today's reading captured my attention. I will continue to read this story. Yes it is true that you already know what has happened - who killed the boy, why the boy was killed, who is the boy, what his family is like - however this "story" is unfortunately not an uncommon "real life" occurance. We all watch the news and hear stories about incidents like this. Sometimes the police officers are suspended with pay, suspended without pay, never suspended, investigated or not investigated, prosecuted or put back on the force. Regardless of the police department's action/protocol it leaves a person wondering.... what happened. Did the police officer intentionally kill him or did he really believe he was defending himself. There was a similar occurance in my home town; on the property of the public middle school I attended years ago. A young male teen appeared to be breaking in to an administrator's vehicle. The school police (who now apparently carry loaded weapons) shot and killed this boy on school property. The boy did not have a weapon and this was in broad daylight. The school police officer was reinstated after an investigation. What about the boy? --"After" has provoked all this thought. It is definitely a read I will continue. I am intrigued by the story and look forward to finding out the different perspectives of these characters.

i think this is a great book so far i was just wondering if we are ever going to read a book about a gay teenage boy

This story continues to hold my interest. I like the names of the communities that writer chose, "Heavens..., Paradise...". Foreshadowing I think.

The full moon attracting his attention so much that obviously provokes a feeling of what may be considered superstition but then he brushes it off and instead pokes fun at others he knows that are superstitions and their superstition rituals.

I wonder if the next full moon will invoke his own superstition ritual(after the events that happen to him this night).

The writer continues to hold my interest. Now that we know how the shooting happened. It is plain that the officer did try to resolve the situation prior to shooting. But how will the media twist this (as they are so well known for theatrics)? I am intrigued -- how will his wife react? How are the young man's loved ones going to react?
The force already made up its mine in the few minutes they were there. Not the police officer's fault. End of story. Now take ten days of mandatory silence. Wow. I conduct more of an investigation with the employee relation claims at work and they never involve death.

Each time I read a excerpt from the book I could hardly wait for the next one. It is a very interesting book. I will read the book in its entirety to see just how the affect the office and his family and to find out who the boy was and learn about his life.

I am listening to this book now on CD and I believe the title is a misnomer. 3/4 of the book is spent on the time *before* the shooting. We find out a lot about the main characters' background, family history, relationships with children...and very little about the investigation. Towards the end we finally meet the parents of the boy who was killed. It is also disappointing that some of the scenes seem to appear out of nowhere, stop, and then are never addressed again. For the most part I've been disappointed, although the author does raise some good questions for discussion.