The Holdout

The tense, gripping Richard and Judy Book Club pick for 2021

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Pub Date 16 Feb 2021 | Archive Date 23 Feb 2021

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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

**********
MAJOR TV SERIES COMING SOON - FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU NETFLIX'S UNBELIEVABLE...

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?

**********

'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

'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

...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781409196815
PRICE £8.99 (GBP)
PAGES 336

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Average rating from 156 members


Featured Reviews

A thoroughly entertaining really very clever book in the end, especially given all the influences I thought about whilst reading this were referenced by the author himself later in the book...And used to really good effect within the resolution.

Kind of thought provoking too a book with a moral dilemma at the heart of it wrapped up in a mystery element that is very intriguing. 

Great pace, plotting and addictive quality with engaging eclectic characters and a what would you do vibe that'll keep this novel in your head after reading.

Really very good indeed. Fuller review near publication.

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This was a great example of a courtroom drama thriller. Lots of investigation, jury moments, cat and mouse stuff.

However, without a memorable antagonist, or driving force (it's never the person you think it is) the central mystery is the only thing driving the plot forward.

Good, but not great. Some well drawn characters mean it's very enjoyable, super readable, just not ultimately memorable.

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I’ve dived wholeheartedly into the legal thriller in recent years, devouring Take It Back by Kia Abdullah, Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh and several of John Grisham’s backlist to satisfy my craving for more courtroom hijinks, so when The Holdout popped up on NetGalley as a clever new take on the genre from bestselling author and screenwriter of the fantastic film The Imitation Game, I knew I had to take a look, and I was delighted when I was selected by Orion as one of the first jury to make a judgement on the novel.

The Holdout follows the jury tasked with deciding the verdict of the case of the decade, where Bobby Nock, a 25-year old African American teacher is charged with the murder of fifteen-year old Jessica Silver, one of his students. So far, it’s an interesting concept but not so unique in the genre.

Here’s where The Holdout really begins to stand out. The book picks up 10 years after the case in question had concluded, with the jury finding Bobby Nock not guilty of the murder, after Maya, initially the only holdout claiming Bobby’s innocence, manages to convince all 11 other members of the jury to flip their votes.

10 years later the case is still a huge part of every juror’s life. Some have written bestselling expose memoirs, some have lost their jobs and some, like our protagonist Maya, have built their career around it, as she becomes a defence attorney herself. She can’t get rid of the case but her life has settled down a little.

But when Rick, one of her fellow jurors, gets in touch to say they’re filming a reunion TV special where he’ll expose new evidence about the case and they’ll have a landmark ‘re-vote’, secrets from ten years ago threaten to spill out all over again. And when one of the jurors ends up dead at the reunion, all eyes turn to the remaining members as suspects.

The story takes place in 2019, with flashbacks to the original trial in 2009, and primarily follows Maya, though each of the jury members has a POV chapter at some point throughout the novel, giving a great glimpse into each of their personalities and situations. Some of the characters were definitely more developed than others, but when you’re basing a novel on a 12-person jury, there’s always going to have to be some characters who’re more peripheral, and this doesn’t interfere with the reader’s enjoyment at all.

The writing is brilliant. It’s got a cinematic flair, as you’d expect from an author with this background, and it maintains a snippy pace throughout, constantly driving from revelation to revelation. Description is sparingly used but powerful when it is, with several of the more outlandish settings still firmly etched in my mind even a week or so after finishing the book.

The biggest standout for me, as someone who is both a voracious reader and an aspiring writer, is the dialogue. Often one of the more challenging parts of a book, the author is spectacular here. Every line feels real and authentic, and most importantly, sounds like something a real human being would actually say, while maintaining the bite that great written dialogue needs.

Of course, I can’t talk too much on the intricate details of the plot, but safe to say that you will not be disappointed. There’s several fantastic twists, all of the storylines are bought together brilliantly and the climax is inventive, if perhaps slightly twee, though I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. All-in-all I was very disappointed to find myself finishing the last page, and desperately hope for more from the author in the near future.

Your honour, on charges of being an inventive, cinematic and utterly gripping legal thriller, this member of the jury finds The Holdout utterly guilty.

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Sooooo Good! Maya is one of a panel of jurors who delivers a surprising and extremely controversial Not Guilty verdict in a high profile LA murder trial. The ramifications for her and the other jurors of their unpopular verdict come back to haunt them a decade later. They discover that one juror has been digging into their pasts....and when one of the jurors ends up dead things really take off. This is a brilliantly well-told and compelling part thriller, part murder mystery with genuinely surprising plot twists. It's one of those superb novels that you won't stop thinking about. Buckle up for an exciting read.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If Agatha Christie and John Grisham had a love child it would look a lot like The Holdout. Graham Moore's novel is a compelling synthesis of And Then There Were None, Twelve Angry Men and The Runaway Jury. Utterly addictive and intelligently written, The Holdout took me back to the halcyon days of vintage Grisham and my discovery as an excited teenager of A Time To Kill.. I remember thinking with some sadness, since, that although there are many imitators of Grisham, none have come close to matching his pre-eminence as master of the legal thriller. That was until I read The Holdout. This is quite a tour de force of a legal thriller, with a wonderfully twisty Agatha Christie-esque mystery at the heart of the narrative. There is more, pardon the pun, from Moore. For whilst he straddles genres with a deft touch, he has also manages to capture the zeitgeist of frenzied speculation and hysteria that surrounded the O.J. Simpson trial and the mystery of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. Indeed, the mystery at the heart of the novel: the disappearance of billionaire heiress, Jessica Silver, has more than a touch of the same hyperbole that characterised the legends of Simpson and Lindbergh in the annals of American legal history.. Whilst this also gives the novel a certain distinctive atmospheric resonance that hooks you from the first page, this novel is also front loaded with question upon question. Did Bobby Nocke really kill Jessica Silver? What role does the jury's acquittal of Nocke play in current events? Why was a juror, who increasingly believed in Nocke's guilt, murdered at a reunion of jury members? These are just some of the questions that demand answering in The Holdout. Propelling the narrative forward like a heat-seeking missile is Maya, the young woman who convinced the jury that Bobby was not guilty by reason that there was more than a preponderance of doubt that he had committed the crime. We see the unfolding events through Maya's eyes as she begins to unravel the events that connect past to present and the identity of the juror who is setting her up as a suspect for murder. Moore ratchets up the tension to an unbearable degree until we reach the final, stunning denouement. What a denouement it is too! With its electrifying plot, authentic dialogue and characters who defy their fictional existence, this is one novel you wont want to miss.

A sure smash hit for 2020. My favourite legal thriller of the last two decades.

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The Holdout is part legal thriller part mystery. Maya now a defence attorney sat on a jury 10 years previously where a black American teacher was on trial for the murder of a white female student.
Rather like in 12 Angry Men where other jurors had decided the accused was guilty Maya dogmatically gradually changed their minds. The not guilty verdict cause a news storm and affected all the other jurors over the decade that has past.
A documentary is to made about the trial and all the jurors are reunited to reassess their verdict and decide whether they would now change how they voted.
The story alternates between the past and present, we are given the points of view of others jurors. As to the mystery I will say no more as I feel it would add too many spoilers.
All in all a well paced read, lots of twists, great dialogue and a cast of well rounded characters, enjoyable and well written.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.

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“One Jury member changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?”
Ten years ago Maya and Rick were part of jury who found Bobby Nock innocent of the murder of Jessica Silver. Jessica was the daughter of a wealthy statesman and she was never seen again- a body was never found. Maya famously changed the whole jury from 11-1 guilty when they started to a non guilty verdict.She went on to become a successful defence lawyer. For the ten year anniversary a TV show wants to get together the remaining jury members. Maya isn’t sure about this at all but her company wants her to go and support her.. Rick says he has new evidence to show that they were all wrong- Bobby did kill Jessica after all. When one of the jurors is then found dead- could it be one of the others? Is Maya safe or is she about to pay the price for speaking out all those years ago? Oooh!!! This gripped me early on. chapters flip between what went on at the trial and now and are easy to follow. I quickly liked Maya as she fought for what she believed in and wasn’t a push over just to get a quick verdict. A jury story with a difference- a real difference! A brilliantly written thrilling read that kept me in its grip to the very last page
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Thank you to Orion Crime and Netgalley for this ARC.
Just brilliant, gripped from the first page to the last. Only disappointed when I finished it as I didn't want it to end.
Totally compelling.

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WOW!!! I absolutely loved this book, I read it in less than 24 hours and just couldn't put it down - I almost considered not sleeping so that I could finish it quicker!!

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This is the first time I have read Graham Moore and I suspect I will be seeking out other novels by this author as it was a brilliant read.

It could be said that it was a courtroom drama with a murder or a murder embroiled in a courtroom drama. Whichever way round it was an addictive read that I was unable to put down.

‘The Holdout’ follows the lives of a jury which was involved in acquitting a man accused of murder ten years before against the belief of the general public at the time. Somehow the names of the jurors had been made known and they spent several months sequestrated. Maya appeared to be the one who persuaded the rest of the jurors that Bobby Nock, a black man, was innocent of the murder of Jessica Silver, a young while girl who was the daughter of a rich local businessman.

A ten-year anniversary meeting is arranged by a television network and Rick, the juror who had a book published condemning Maya, is found murdered in Maya’s hotel room. As the story unfolds with the narrative switching from ten years ago to present day the reader learns secrets and lies of those involved on the jury as well as others around.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and Graham Moore for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Excellent Read. Highly recommended.

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