by Rob Rinder
2024
The darling of the media, super-cop Grant Clivedon, drops down dead in the witness box at the Old Bailey. The country is shocked and they need someone to pay.
An ex-con, Jimmy Knight, that Clivedon put away some time before has been protesting his innocence from the start. Now everyone suspects him of murdering Clivedon by poisoning. He is the likeliest suspect. He’s a sitting duck.
Enter trainee barrister, Adam Green, who’s in the pupillage of a lazy, arrogant mentor who has got by on his reputation from his early career. Jonathan Taylor-Cameron, Adam’s pupil-master, writes off Jimmy Knight as guilty from the start and more or less hands over the reins to Adam. Adam believe that Jimmy isn’t guilty, and he starts building his first ever defense case. Against startling odds, he starts to make headway.
I was hooked on this book from the beginning. Rob Rinder’s experience at the bar shines through the pages, and his dry wit is very much in evidence.
I can’t wait to read the sequel which is out this month. It was well-written (no surprise with his background), it had a good plot line which had a nice twist at the end, even though it was a little obvious, and I loved reading about the inner workings of the inns of court.
I really enjoyed visiting Temple Bar and the Inns of Courts a while ago, as well as the Old Bailey, and I could imagine where it was all taking place.
I certainly got to know and either like or loathe the characters and I’d love to see this made into a TV series: a kind of light hearted behind the scenes courtroom drama, full of Rob Rinder’s witty and acerbic asides.
I think we chose this book because we like Rob Rinder, although, frankly, not all celebrity authors’ books are successful. I didn’t want to anticipate great things because I was concerned it would be well-written but unoriginal, but I found it really absorbing. It was a little formulaic, but who doesn’t like an underdog-turns-champion tale?
I give this book an 9/10 - I thoroughly enjoyed it, and have pre-ordered the second in the series, which is due to be delivered to my Audible library on 20th June.
Our group overwhelmingly gave it a 10 and it seems to be the group’s favourite book yet.
As a side issue, because I family share Kindle accounts with my very kind mum, I was able to read her Kindle version and then seamlessly carry on listening from where I left off on my Audible version. That was a real treat as I got the very best of both worlds. I will definitely endeavour to do this again, although it’s an expensive way of doing it, if you have to pay for both versions.
Thank you to Edna for hosting us beautifully, as always (thanks, Mum! 😊)
Our next book is The Authenticity Project by Claire Pooley.
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go." —Dr. Seuss
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