The Advocate is the debut novel by Indie Author Teresa Burrell.  Sabre Orin Brown, the main character, is an attorney for the Juvenile Court. Burrell does a great job with character development, causing the reader to connect and take sides. Representing children in juvenile court against their parents could never be easy due to the simple fact that in an ideal world there would be no need for such a court, but Burrell depicts the struggle in honest, real terms.  Sabre endeavors to develop a connection with the children she represents in an effort to forge a relationship in which they can trust her and feel safe with her.  Unfortunately in a world where superficial impressions are deemed most important, even fictional characters have to delve deep to find out the truth.  

Sabre is assigned a case where she represents the father of  a ten year old girl, her 2 year old half brother and an unborn half sibling who has been accused of domestic violence.  The father, Gaylord Murdock, has been accused of hitting his wife and the children are witnesses. Sabre’s first mistake is wanting to speak to the children to find out what actually happened.  It is a mistake because Gaylord Murdock is a controlling, manipulative man, from a wealthy well known Southern family. The story gets creepy and scary from that point on.

If there is an issue with the book, it is that when you finish reading, you are left feeling like Sabre should be in a mental hospital having suffered a major nervous breakdown due to the extreme number of bad things that happen to her. To name just a few events in the book, Sabre ends up traveling from California to Georgia, gets kidnapped, solves a 5 year old murder, takes down a major crime syndicate and has her condo burned down.  Lots of action, suspense and a very disturbing parent. It is an impressive book for a new author.