Although I was concerned that IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN might turn me off by its subject matter, I thought wrong. This book concentrates on the effects of child abuse cases on Jeffrey Rinek, the FBI agent who worked them, more than it does on the cases, themselves. I’m very glad I read it.

The book begins with Jeffrey Rinek as a boy and gives the reader an idea of why he was the way he was as an adult in the FBI. When he fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming an FBI agent, he was assigned many child abuse cases and cases of missing and murdered children. He was found to be a successful interviewer/interrogator because of his compassion, and that compassion was almost his undoing. He is now retired from the FBI.

Rinek was strongly affected by his cases, and IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN describes several of them and why and how each affected him. So you could say that this is both Rinek’s memoir and a true crime book.

Thank you to bookclubcookbook.com. I wouldn’t have read IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN if you hadn’t sent it to me. I was so pleased with this book, I even emailed Rinek to tell him. Now I hope to convince others to read it.