- This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
- ASIN : B0F74L6DHV
- Publisher : Picador, Publication date : July 29, 2025
- Print length : 440 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1761773204
- THE FIRST LEGAL THRILLER FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING SECRET BARRISTER WRITING AS S. J. FLEET
Synopsis (Amazon)
It is one of the biggest trials of the year. Three seventeen-year-old boys are accused of the brutal murder of an elderly teacher on New Year's Eve.
Each boy denies it.
Each points the finger at the other two.
But they can’t all be innocent.
The three defence barristers have only one job: to persuade the jury that their client is not guilty. But they’re up against a prosecutor who needs to win the case, no matter the cost.
Because when the game is murder, the competition is deadly.
Launching a brilliant new voice in crime fiction, a criminal barrister with an incomparable insider’s knowledge, The Cut Throat Trial is the most gripping thriller of the year.
My Take
I have thought very hard about the implications of starting this year's reviews with book with a rating of 5.0, but have decided that I really can't give it less.
The story involves a British murder trial where a jury is required to give a verdict of guilty or not guilty against each of 3 teenagers accused of murdering an elderly retired teacher. The narrative is very detailed and is told from multiple points of view: of the judge, the prosecutor and the defence lawyers, as well as the accused. It is virtually a "warts and all" narrative, considering what has influenced each of the boys, what is disclosed to the jury, what the verdicts were and why, and then what really happened. It successfully puts the reader in the position of a member of the jury, trying to come to the right decision.
This book reminded me very strongly of DICE by Claire Baylis in which a jury in New Zealand is required to give the verdict on several charges in a rape case involving four teenagers. That novel focussed on the points of view of the jury.
My rating: 5.0
About the author
S.J. Fleet is the pen name of The Secret Barrister, a bestselling author and junior barrister specialising in criminal law.
They write for many publications and are the author of the award-winning blog 'The Secret Barrister'. They regularly appear in national print and broadcast media, and in 2020 Channel 4 News produced a four-part documentary series, The Secret Barrister: Disordered Justice.
Their debut book, The Secret Barrister: Stories of The Law and How It's Broken, was a Sunday Times number one bestseller and spent more than a year in the top-ten bestseller charts. It won the Books Are My Bag Non-Fiction Book of the Year award and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year and the Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
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