When Simon Tolkien, the 44-year-old grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, gave the manuscript of his own debut novel, The Stepmother, to his American publisher, he was met with incredulity. For the plot of this courtroom drama hinges on the decision of Sir Peter Robinson, a government minister, to side with his mistress, rather than his teenage son, when the mistress is accused of planning a murder that the son has witnessed. [More]