I am delighted to share my review of legal thriller The Holdout today for my stop on the blog tour. Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy.
The Blurb:
One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?
'Ten years ago we made a decision together...'
Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It's an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed.
Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.
Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect.
The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago?
The Holdout was published by Orion (in the UK) on 20th February 2020 and is available from all usual retailers. Why not visit your local independent bookshop? Or online you could try Bert's Books, The Big Green Bookshop, or Hive (which will link to the nearest participating indie bookshop).
My Review:
It's been ages since I read a legal thriller so I was excited to read this. It begins with a cracking scene - it's not part of the main story but it's one heck of an opener. A legal.case with a 'What the...?' moment.
Anyway, on to the main story. Maya is a lawyer now but ten years earlier she was a member of the jury for a huge murder case. In the jury room she was the only one who thought the accused was not guilty. Eventually, she talked everybody else round. In the following years, some of the others regret that decision.
On the tenth anniversary of the trial a TV company is making a documentary about it. Maya initially refuses but her boss encourages her to take part, for good publicity for the firm. But before the filming begins one of the jurors is found dead. And Maya is the prime suspect. To save herself she must look at the trial again, and investigate her fellow jurors - any one of them could be guilty.
Told over a dual timeline, Maya, whilst on bail, visits the other jurors whilst we see the events around the trial ten years earlier from each of their points of view. Maya also visits other key players from the trial in her efforts to find the truth, and a little more of the back story is revealed with each visit.
I loved Maya. She's strong, tenacious and determined, and willing to push to find the truth, even if it means putting herself at risk. And she doesn't waiver in what she believes to be the truth.
This is a detailed story, with lots of characters so I needed to stay alert to keep up. But that wasn't difficult as I couldn't wait to find out what happened, both in the present day and also ten years ago. It is fast moving, tense, and exciting, going off at tangents throughout. It kept my attention throughout and I didn't anticipate the ending at all. I really enjoyed this and would happily recommend it.
The Author:
Graham Moore is a New York Times bestselling novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.
His screenplay for The Imitation Game won the Academy Award and WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015 and was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.
His first two novels, The Last Days of Night (2016) and The Sherlockian (2010), were published in 24 countries and translated into 19 languages. The Last Days of Night was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the American Library Association. The Sherlockian was nominated for an Anthony Award. His third novel, The Holdout, will be published by Random House on February 18, 2020.
Graham lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Caitlin, and their dog, Janet.
Be sure to check out all the other awesome bloggers taking part in the tour!
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