Prima Facie
A Novel
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- US$12.99
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A Bookriot Best Thriller of 2024
“Enthralling and sharp-witted...Highly recommended.”
—Karin Slaughter, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author
“Bold, fearless...Prima Facie is a deeply rewarding, absolute must read.”
—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End
This is not life, this is law…
Tessa Ensler loves her job. She’s worked her way up to being a top criminal defense barrister against all the odds, and fights to defend those pleading not guilty. Tessa believes in the law, believes in the system. Her quick-witted cross-examinations and intelligence in the courtroom see her clocking up win after win - including securing freedom for men accused of rape and sexual assault. Innocence until proven guilty is, after all, the bedrock of a civilized society.
But when Tessa is raped by a coworker, she struggles to find the strength to bring him to justice in the face of the barriers and opposition within that same system. Determined to have her day in court, Tessa is forced to confront the stark reality that the law was not written for victims, and that she is the one on trial. She fights on, even as her evidence is manipulated to make her look like a liar, even while she is retraumatized in the stand.
Based on the Olivier and Tony Award-winning play, Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie is an unforgettable story of what happens when a victim is asked to navigate a system that is not set up to accommodate the lived experience of sexual assault survivors.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this bracing if somewhat stilted debut, playwright Miller adapts her Olivier-winning play about London criminal defense barrister Tessa Ensler, whose fierce faith in the law is challenged after she's raped by a colleague. Though Tessa prides herself on being a champion for underdogs like her older brother, Johnny—whose juvenile run-ins with the justice system have tainted his professional prospects—she has surprisingly few qualms about defending men accused of sexual assault. Her favored tactic in these cases is superficially sympathetic but ultimately devastating cross-examinations of her client's female accusers. One night, after a bout of heavy drinking, Tessa is assaulted by a colleague with whom she's been carrying on an affair. As she wrestles with the same conundrums faced by the women she's eviscerated on the stand, the novel hits its stride on the way to a climactic courtroom showdown. Miller's narrative more than succeeds as an impassioned piece of advocacy that illuminates the tilted playing field facing sexual assault survivors. Without the immediacy of the stage, however, it can sometimes feel less like a novel than a brilliantly argued legal brief. Miller provides plenty of food for thought, but she doesn't quite nail the transition from stage to page.
