This is a pre-release review of this book which is due for publication in February 2017. It is definitely one to pre-order so that you don’t forget to buy it when it is published.
I must start by saying that I rarely give 5 star reviews as I like to reserve them for something exceptional but this book thoroughly deserves its 5 stars. It has so much to offer that I hardly know where to start. It covers tragedy, pathos, greed and at times such humour as to cause me to laugh out loud earning disapproving looks from those around me. For a long time I was wondering why it started where it did and why it focused on one particular juror. I’m still not entirely sure on the last bit, but the relevance of the opening soon becomes clear.
The author shamelessly plays with the readers’ emotions, giving us hope then dashing it all away, raising tension to almost unbearable levels then ratcheting it up a little more. More than anything he causes us to invest in characters, causes us to trust them and expect great things from them, then he shows us their clay feet. Someone has been betrayed in the past, but who did it and did that person pay a high price? If so, why? On the whole the characters are believable, they all have shades of light and dark, many redeeming features but they also have their flaws which makes them credible and realistic.
As all the evidence begins to point in one direction the reader shares the incredulity of the team; the sense that someone has got it wrong and one finds oneself hoping that it will all sort itself out in the end. It does but not in any predictable way. If anyone thinks that is a spoiler, I promise you that it is not.
The ending saddened me greatly but also left a number or questions unanswered and issues outstanding.
This book grabbed my attention so thoroughly that it left me in a dilemma because although I wanted to get to the end of it to see what happened, I didn’t want it to end – always the sign of a good book. I was so engrossed that I didn’t want to do anything else and found myself getting quite tetchy with people who disturbed me.
bookagoodread 