Thirteen

Author/Guide: Steve Cavanagh

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: ‘To your knowledge, is there anything that would preclude you from serving on this jury?’

ISBN: 978-1409170679
Genre: legal/political, Thriller

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

Murder wasn’t the hard part. It was just the start of the game.

Joshua Kane has been preparing for this moment his whole life. He’s done it before. But this is the big one.

This is the murder trial of the century. And Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house.

But there’s someone on his tail. Someone who suspects that the killer isn’t the man on trial.

Kane knows time is running out – he just needs to get to the conviction without being discovered.

Locations

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Travel Guide

NewYork

New York courthouse is where the action takes place here. A bit like a locked room mystery with several very interesting characters in one small space and no one realises that there is a killer in their midst. Not only that, during a major trial, he’s actually on the jury….

Trial language is taught and heavy:

“In a criminal trial, forensic evidence is God. But I’m a defense attorney. I got the devil on my side. And he doesn’t play fair.”

Not when he’s on the jury….

In the courtroom:

Never before have you been in a court room with the excitement and fear in the air as in this one. Imagine a serial killer being on the jury…watching,…waiting…and only you, the reader knows..

“The voices of the people in the public seat rose to a clatter. There was excitement in the room. Courtroom junkies, true- crime novelists, journalists and TV reporters all yakking to each other. Little details had been given out about the murder. Just the basics. It proved enough to set the dailies on fire”
Kane already knew it had been dubbed “TheTrail of the Century by the Washington Post.”

Streetview Maps

A) NYC - The Court House

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

This might be the fourth in a series but don’t let that put you off if you haven’t read the previous ones as this author not only pulls you in, he drags you there. Don’t worry, you’ll soon know Eddie Flynn, charismatic defence lawyer, ex-con artist Eddie Flynn. He’s a complex guy , with an estranged wife and child, his job having seriously endangered family life. He’s been asked to join the defence team of a famous celebrity actor, accused of killing his wife and security guard. But Flynn suspects the New York cops are corrupt having revealed this fact in public before.

The choosing of the jury, the behaviour of those chosen, their sequestration, place on the trial, the evidence….all gripping stuff which reminded me of that film The Juror. What does go on behind the scenes of a trial? When you realise, that one of the jurors has an ulterior motive for being there…..boy this is good stuff.

There are SO many twists and turns, alternative explanations for an upturned table, blood on the mattress…and then the clue that seems to suggest this case is not at all what anyone thinks.

Although set in New York, there’s barely action outside the courtroom which heightens that tension like a noose around your neck. Gripping is not the word. Death vice grip would be a better way to describe it.

Brilliant in so many ways and a legal thriller with the darkest and fascinating serial killers I’ve read in a while.