Max Parkman is not a normal sixteen-year-old. He’s got Asperger’s (high-functioning autism) and he’s been accused of murder. His mother, Danielle, will stop at nothing to make sure that he doesn’t end up in jail, or worse. She’ll do anything to save him. No matter what the personal cost… This is the basic outline of Saving Max, a 2010 debut novel written by American author Antoinette van Heugten. I was grocery shopping two Wednesdays ago, not even looking for a book to read, when I found this treasure. Maybe it’s because of the cover or the awesome title or maybe it’s because I came across this book on the Internet a year ago, when I was checking up a list of Aspergers-related books that I should read some time, but something made me pick up this book -and I’m so glad I did. I’ve never read a legal thriller before but I did like the legal thriller in the final season of Depserate Housewives. I also love anything got to do with autistic teenagers (whose brains tick in a totally different way than their relatively boring, neurotypical counterparts) and, as my Bates Motel review shows, I also like things got to do with teenagers who’ve probably caused murder. So I immediately bought this book. It doesn’t disappoint -at all. PLOT I won’t give away the ending of this book, seeing as its success depends on the mystery element, but the plot of this book is well-crafted, surprisingly so for such a novice author. Many stories start off very slowly (anyone who’s tried reading the opening chapters of Stephen King’s The Stand will know exactly what I mean: it starts off slower than the Playstation’s loading-screens) but van Heugten gets to the good stuff right...