Handle With Care is the latest bestseller by US novelist Jodi Picoult and in terms of content it certainly follows her signature style. Picoult’s novels are formulaic- there is always a central theme that usually pivots around a health issue or criminal act. This is then fought out through a legal case and is entwined with family politics, religion and sometimes the occult.

Central to this particular story is a sick child whose parents are struggling to deal with the myriad of health problems that accompany Brittle Bone Disease, more accurately Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Type III). Five year old Willow has suffered 68 breaks in her short life. As a newborn she had to be lifted on a foam pad and couldn’t sneeze without fear of a new break. Her parents Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe struggle to finance the special needs that their daughter’s condition throws up but on a single policeman’s salary they know that it just isn’t enough.

But after a meeting with a local law firm the couple discover that it doesn’t have to be that way, and when a local legal firm inform them that they could sue the obstetrician for failing to notice the condition, the pair are faced with a choice. If they tell the world that had they known about Willow’s condition they would have terminated the pregnancy they could receive enough money to look after Willow properly for the rest of her life, if not they will continue their spiral into debt and still fail to give her everything she needs. However it is not quite that simple. The obstetrician is Charlotte’s best friend.

Charlotte feels she has no choice but to try, she is willing to sacrifice everything to give Willow more, but Sean feels differently. A proud man, he is embarrassed that he can’t provide enough and as the legal case unfolds the marriage collapses.

Like all of Picoult’s novels the story draws you in and the tempo increases until you reach the climax of the jury’s verdict. As a reader one can’t help but feel empathy with Charlotte and frustration over Sean’s lack of support. In fact his lack of support feels a little unrealistic and his extreme reaction and abandonment of his wife does not quite ring true.

The book is written as if each of the characters are speaking to Willow and this seems to be forgotten as the story evolves, nevertheless the series of voices telling their story, Picoult’s usual mechanism works well, even if some conversations are slightly repetitive. For example the female lawyer Marin, has the same discussion with her Mother about becoming a lawyer that another lawyer, Maggie, has in an earlier novel Change of Heart.

Overall the book is well worth reading, if a little familiar and as ever the issues tackled in the story are extremely well researched. But compared to some of her earlier works, such as My Sister’s Keeper, which is shortly to be released as a film starring Cameron Diaz, this book is not quite so captivating.

Find out more about Jodi Picoult here.