The Holdout
One jury member changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?
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4.1 • 13 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'The most gripping and satisfying thriller I've read in more than a decade' Sophie Hannah
'One of the best legal thrillers ... as elegant and gripping as Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent' Daily Mail
'Quite the tour de force! Twelve Angry Men meets Chinatown and creates something of its own' Sarah Pinborough
'This is a tense, emotionally charged, scary-good, stand-out read' Caroline Kepnes
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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?
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'Plunge a syringe filled with adrenaline into the heart of Twelve Angry Men and you've got The Holdout: the first legal thriller in thirty years - ever since Presumed Innocent and A Time to Kill electrified readers the world over - to rank alongside those two modern classics.' AJ Finn
'A page-turning legal thriller with a twisty and absolutely riveting plot ... plus a strong and compelling female heroine. You won't be able to put this one down!' Lisa Scottoline
'Clever, well-written and twistier than a can of silly-string. You absolutely need to read The Holdout!' Emma Kavanagh
'Amazing thriller, deserves to be one of the biggest books of 2020' Michelle Davies
'Terrific, twisty and well-structured thriller' Adele Geras
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This stellar novel from bestseller Moore (The Last Days of Night) takes a searing look at the U.S. justice system, media scrutiny, and racism. A decade earlier, during a high-profile L.A. murder trial, idealist Maya Seale persuaded her fellow jurors to acquit African-American high school teacher Bobby Nock of killing Jessica Silver, his wealthy white 15-year-old student. The controversial trial had a powerful impact on all the jurors, most of whom regretted the verdict. Maya was vilified in the press, but the most stinging rebuke came from juror Rick Leonard, who published a book blaming the verdict on Maya's bullying. Now the producers of Murder Town, a true crime documentary series, want to do a 10-year anniversary special with Maya, who's since become a defense attorney, as the key participant. During a reunion of the jurors, one of them is murdered in Maya's hotel room. The narrative builds tension as it shifts among the voices of the various jurors, including Maya. Moore has set a new standard for legal thrillers.
Customer Reviews
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Author
American. Two previous novels, 'The Sherlockian' (2010) and 'The Last Days of Night' (2016) were NY Times bestsellers translated into multiple languages. His screenplay for 'The Imitation Game' (a movie based on the life of Alan Turing) won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015.
Precis
A young woman lacking direction in life moves from NY to LA and promptly gets called up for jury duty. A 20-something black schoolteacher is accused of murdering a 15-year old student with whom he has been having a dangerous liaison. No body is ever found, but the chick's old man is a big shot business man who owns half the city and wants the black dude put away. The press are all over it, the public likewise. The jury gets sequestered after their names and addresses are leaked, and end up isolated in a hotel for 4 months. (Worse than Covid-19). Long story short, our gal is the hold out in the jury room, who eventually persuades the rest to acquit. Mucho controversy ensues.Ten years on and our gal is a lawyer herself. One of the other jurors, obsessed with the case, writes a book, and eventually gets the band (all surviving jurors) back together for a podcast 10 years down the track. Before "the big reveal," he gets dead himself. In our gal's hotel room! She is charged. Stuff happens. Justice is finally delivered. Or not. Willing suspension of belief required.
Writing
Takes a while to get things moving, but after engaging screenplay mode, Mr Moore finishes strong, drawing heavily on Agatha Christie along the way. In case we didn't realise, he has one of the characters, a Christie aficionado, explain. I have not read The Sherlockian, but suspect Mr Moore might have paid the teensiest bit of homage to Conan Doyle in it.
Bottom line
Entertaining. Read it now or wait for the inevitable serialisation on one of the streaming services.