Thirteen

My rating: * * *

Goodreads Description

They were Hollywood's hottest power couple. They had the world at their feet. Now one of them is dead and Hollywood star Robert Solomon is charged with the brutal murder of his beautiful wife. This is the celebrity murder trial of the century and the defence want one man on their team: con artist turned lawyer Eddie Flynn. All the evidence points to Robert's guilt, but as the trial begins a series of sinister incidents in the court room start to raise doubts in Eddie's mind. What if there's more than one actor in the courtroom? What if the killer isn't on trial? What if the killer is on the jury?

My Review

As I write this review, I find myself pondering how it can be that a book that has been such a massive hit with just about everybody, was only mediocre for me. And I truly have no answer to this other than to say that perhaps the dreaded curse of the "over hyped novel" has struck once again.

If you check out the reviews of this title on Goodreads, you'll see 5 star review after 5 star review. People have literally lost their book-reading minds over this title, and quite frankly, I'm not sure why. Yes, Eddie Flynn is a fairly interesting character, and yes, the plot is fairly good, but that's where the compliments end for me. It was fairly good but it wasn't great, and I'm definitely not singing its praises like others are.

The thing with this book is that it probably has one of the best tags ever: The serial killer isn't on trial, he's on the jury. I mean seriously, if that doesn't get you chomping at the bit to read this highly anticipated legal thriller then nothing will. But, the main problems for me were that there simply wasn't enough courtroom action in this courtroom thriller, and the fact that the serial killer just wasn't believable.

I'm a massive fan of courtroom scenes, and I love reading the cleverly phrased legal questions put to the witnesses by the equally clever and suave lawyers, how they trap the ducking-and-diving witnesses and how they tease the truth out of the uncooperative ones. That for me is the highlight of legal thrillers. Now quite frankly, this book just didn't really have much of that. There were a few short courtroom scenes, but they were in the minority, and although I enjoyed them, they were nothing really special. The thing with this book is that I didn't get what I wanted, and what I expected. I expected a book packed with brilliant legal masterminds and clever courtroom scenes, and I didn't really get that.

To add insult to injury, I found the serial killer, Joshua Kane, a little bit too exaggerated to be real. Kane, one of the cleverest serial killers of his time, who has managed to evade capture for decades, is then brought down by Flynn in less than a week. Let's add to that the fact that Kane has some sort of physical condition meaning that he doesn't feel pain - well, how convenient. He has inside contacts, he can forge documents, he's a master of disguise, and he's clever enough to have wrangled his way onto the jury in a plethora of cases. All this, but yet Flynn, a lawyer having only seen Kane in court on a handful of occasions, manages to bring him down in no time at all. No, unfortunately that was just all a little too much for me.

But let me say this, please do not pass on reading this book because I didn't fall in love with it. You may just find that you seriously disagree with me, and you may just find yourself head over heels in love with Eddie Flynn and this story. So many others have, so in all probability you will too.

My Rating: * * *

Publication Date: April 2018 (South Africa)

Genre: Legal Thriller

Format: Trade Paperback

Source: Review copy received from the publisher. Many thanks to author, Steve Cavanagh and Jonathan Ball SA for my copy. It was my pleasure to read and review this title.