Another excellent addition to what has become my favourite series of books! Highly recommended!
** Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher **

This is an interesting snippet of a book, one part biography, and one part murder mystery. The introduction is the meeting of the people and histories of the men and women who form the jury to the trial of murder. Each person has backgrounds which colour their understanding of justice which are written about with enough interest to make the reader wanting more. Then the crime is fully developed, with historical facts and expositions to colour the mind of the reader as they search the clues for the truth to the mystery. At the centre of the story is the cruel treatment of a young boy by the heartless person in dominion over him. The accused is not written in a sympathetic manner, the misery of the child is plain to see. Through twists and turns the reader is taken through the possibilities and made to imagine only one result that can satisfy but it remains to the reader to decide if satisfaction is achieved. The book is quirky and full of unexpected twists. The writing is old fashioned and yet accessible. The sting, in the end, hurts oh so joyfully.

Puts me very much in mind of Reginald Rose's "Twelve Angry Men" which is what drew me to the classic courtroom drama where the guilt or innocence of one rests in the hands of twelve, sometimes flawed, individuals.

Another great atmospheric read from the British Library publications. I do love these book and have a small collection forming on my bookcase. They take you back to the time of some brilliant crime story writing.

"A woman is on trial for her life, accused of murder. The twelve members of the jury each carry their own secret burden of guilt and prejudice which could affect the outcome.

In this extraordinary crime novel, we follow the trial through the eyes of the jurors as they hear the evidence and try to reach a unanimous verdict. Will they find the defendant guilty, or not guilty? And will the jurors' decision be the correct one?

Since its first publication in 1940, Verdict of Twelve has been widely hailed as a classic of British crime writing. This edition offers a new generation of readers the chance to find out why so many leading commentators have admired the novel for so long."

Yeah, love the work Poisoned Pen Press is doing, but NOT loving this cover.

“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, bvut, on the contrary their social existence determines their consciousness” Marx

Raymond Postgate’s Verdict of Twelve is a fascinating and absorbing variant of the crime novel.

Published in 1940, and with the concerns of the times embedded – anti-Semitism within society, an entrenched class system, the effects of culture, economics, politics upon the lives and outlooks of individuals – this is courtroom drama

A crime, one which will lead to the death penalty if the accused is found guilty, has been committed.

The reader is not directly introduced to the crime itself, initially. Rather, we meet the jury. And are given insights into the backgrounds of each of them, which allows Postgate, a pacifist, socialist, journalist, and a founding member of the British Communist Party, to present differing internal narratives, to show across class and gender, how the lives of individuals have been shaped by personal events, but also, far wider, by politics, culture, and the structure of capitalist society.

“Once any group, no matter what, is separated by a general suspicion or merely a general belief from the rest of society, it is by that mere fact made different, and develops at once marked characteristics of its own”

So this becomes a very interesting and well written crime novel. Whilst a lot of the Golden Age writers of the 30s were writing about crime committed by, and within, the privileged classes, Postgate is doing something very different. This is not just an entertainment (though it is a very well structured and entertaining read in the genre) It is educative.

After meeting the jurors, the case itself (a complex one, though the list of suspects is small, and the reader might, from their own sympathies, have clear ideas of who-dunnit not to mention why-dunnit.

Having met the jurors, and received a view which shows us that subjective judgements will play a very large part in the ‘Guilty/Not Guilty’ decision, judgements moulded by character, which is moulded by external factors as much as internal factors, we might be also being drawn into what our own decisions might be, as to the innocence or guilt of the person on trial.

“Like most men of past middle-age he habitually faintly disliked or distrusted handsome men, especially dark handsome men, If there was any excuse he would classify them as shiny or foreign looking”

The book ends with a wonderful rug-pull, to topple the reader.

I received this as a well-done digital ARC. It is part of the British Library Crime Classics series, a marvellous treasure trove for those preferring less detailed spatter of blood, gore and other bodily fluids which much modern crime writing seems to dwell on, somewhat gratuitously.

Series editor Martin Edwards provides an interesting Introduction, which I read, as is my wont, after reading the book. And was pleasantly surprised to discover that it had contained no spoilers. Instead, it was an account of Postgate himself, in the context of his own life and placing this book within the genre of other crime writing.

A verdict of guilt/innocence. You take twelve people and let them decide about the death/letting go of a person. But who are these people and on what is their opinion based and formed? This interesting book of fiction examines that with wit, intelligence and some sound psychology.

There is a death of a child by poison. But was that a crime? And if yes, who is the guilty one?

The twelve jurors vary greatly, and the reader gets acquainted with their characters and lives very shortly in the beginning. They are of various age, intelligence, maturity and knowledge and they make their decisions on issues what might be unknown to them, even. Take Victoria Atkins, who herself has committed a murder. Or take Alice Morris, a Jewess, whose husband had died after a violent attack. Or Mr Popesgrove wishing nothing more than interpersonate a real and proper British gentleman while being an Greek migrant in disguise. And so on and so on.

So, yes. The question here is not the truth and facts, it is the decision-making process and the story. Why do we believe what we believe?
How do we know? Is it about the instincts and intuition, about the critical thinking or about the expert knowledge in the fact field? And who can decide about the human life and its termination-are the jurors really competent here?
This is a good question to start a quite heated discussion in a meeting of a book club, as it smartly players with the key factor - the decision over the freedom or death based on the belief of the twelve.
I, for one, believe more to the experts (judges) than to the jury made of my fellow people. What is yours?

I can’t believe that I hadn’t heard of this book before it was included as one of the wonderful British Library Crime Classics. This unusual tale follows the deliberation of a crime as recounted in court to a jury of the traditional twelve.

The book is split into three parts – we have the introduction to the jury in the first part some of whom have led colourful lives, especially one who committed a serious crime, but on the whole they are what we can assume are a fairly typical mix of society at the time the book was published, in 1940. We have a travelling salesman, a domestic servant, a publican and the university professor who imagines his superior intellect will be needed to help the other members reach the right decision. The question is will he and will they? Raymond Postgate uses this first section to not only give us the jurors social standing but also to comment, albeit lightly, on the politics of the time so we get to understand the havoc caused by WWI and the rise of anti-Semitism in the UK at the time he wrote the book, which I would hazard a guess at being prior to the start of WWII as this doesn’t get a mention. This opener can also be seen as a way of asking the readers to predict how the jurors will decide whether or not to convict the defendant, although at this stage we have no idea what crime has been committed let alone who the defendant is. This is because we get some details of their lives, those who have lived the life they expected to those who have felt thwarted, those who have known great love to those who have felt deep loss, the religious and the abused sit side by side, again providing us with a range of experiences that could be common to any random group of strangers.

In part two we learn about the charges levied against the defendant told in a fairly straightforward narrative format with little of the dramatics that we may associate with a courtroom drama. The story is a sad one and the evidence far from conclusive, more than that I won’t say because I don’t want to take anything away from the sheer delight I felt at trying to determine what the truth of the matter might be.

The final section is where we sit amongst the jurors and see what they decide, and why. Some are decisive, and those that are were not necessarily the ones that I predicted would be in the first part. Raymond Postgate seems to have a good handle on seemingly lightly skimming the surface and thereby making this book intensely readable but punctuating his words from truths that are as pertinent now as they obviously were then, that is why people tend to act the way they do.

I can’t leave this review by stating that the postscript is phenomenal, sheer genius and one that ensures that this is one of those books that I will remember for a long time to come.

I'd like to say a big thank you to the publishers of Verdict of Twelve, British Library Publishing, for allowing me to read a copy of this book. This review is my unbiased thank you to them for such a memorable read.

The classic mystery from Britain's Golden Age of mystery takes a very different take on the genre. It focuses not on the mystery but on the trial and jury.

The book has three sections: the jury, the case, and the trial. In the first section we learn about the members of the jury, their backgrounds and their motivations in serving. In the case we get what would be the book in most mysteries, the events leading up to the murder and the arrest of the potential murderer. The final section gives us the trial, jury deliberations, verdict, and aftermath.

It's really well-written and the characters are interesting, well-drawn, and wide-ranging.

But, good as it was ultimately I was a bit dissatisfied with the book. I think that's because I hold with the idea that the base of all mysteries is that chaos has happened and that the world must be set right again. We get the catharsis that is an essential part of this through the process of solving the crime and the arrest of the criminal. To this sense what comes after is an anti-climax.

If this isn't how you see mysteries, you'll probably give this novel five stars.

A woman is on trial for murder and a jury is being sworn in to decide her fate. A jury of twelve men and women selected at random from all walks of life, each of whom has an interesting story of his or her own. Verdict of Twelve (1940), one of the British Library Crime Classics series, is as much about the jury as it is about the crime, which makes it an unusual and fascinating novel.

The book is divided into three main sections. In the first, we are introduced to each member of the jury as they step forward one by one to take their oaths. With an academic, a religious fanatic, a servant, a Greek restaurant owner and an encyclopedia salesman among them, many areas of society are represented and these twelve very different people must find a way to work together to reach what they believe to be the correct verdict.

The second part of the novel (which begins about a third of the way into the book) describes the crime itself. We are given some background information on the accused woman and then an account of the events which led up to the murder. I don’t think I can go into any detail without spoiling things, so I will just say that it is an intriguing mystery, very dark at times but with some humour at others. Although there are only a few suspects it is difficult to decide from the available evidence (which is largely circumstantial) exactly what happened and whether the jurors’ verdict should be guilty or not guilty.

Next, we watch the trial take place, listen to the witnesses and then join the jurors as they discuss the case and try to reach agreement. Finally a short epilogue lets us know whether we – and the jury – came to the right conclusion. It’s an interesting structure and one which I thought worked very well. Knowing the personal background of each juror before the trial begins helps us to see how their individual prejudices and experiences affects their reasoning when it comes to considering the evidence and making a decision. Some find that they have sympathy for the accused and some for the victim; as the reader, I felt that I was almost in the position of a thirteenth juror – and as I disliked one of the characters so much I found that I was also reacting emotionally rather than objectively.

My only slight criticism is that the first section of the book, in which the jury is introduced, is quite uneven. A few of the characters, particularly Victoria Atkins and Arthur Popesgrove, are fully fleshed out in what are almost self-contained short stories, while some of the others have only one or two pages devoted to them. As each juror has one twelfth of the input into the final decision, I’m not sure why we needed to know so much more about some of their backgrounds than others. Apart from this, I really enjoyed Verdict of Twelve – highly recommended for all lovers of classic crime!

Interesting 1940 mystery tale that begins by explicating the backgrounds of all the jurors in an upcoming murder trial, then provides an account of the murder (or was it?) they will be called upon to adjudicate, and finally moves on to the trial, their deliberations, and the verdict.

Although the story somewhat cleverly constructed, I found the first section to be rather slow going (and very much of its time and place), the tale to be lacking in suspense or mystery, and its denouement neither surprising nor satisfying.

This was a delightful read. It's hard not to use the word "delightful" when describing this old fashioned British courtroom drama. Verdict of Twelve is a republication of a book originally released in 1940. It starts with the backstory of the twelve jurors selected for a murder trial, describes the events leading to the trial short of revealing who did it, and then recounts the trial, deliberations and verdict, ending with a clever epilogue -- especially the last line. It's all in the telling. Postgate creates characters with distinct backstories and personalities, giving a strong sense of the baggage they bring to jury duty. And he writes in that lovely precise language of older British novels -- few words conveying much thought and emotion. There's nothing deep here, but Postgate does a great job in conveying the motives and motivations of all involved -- seeding some doubts about the value of trial by jury. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Verdict of Twelve by Raymond Postgate.* A woman is on trial for her life. Each member of the jury has their own history that will affect how they decide the case. The reader is introduced to the members of the jury one by one and learns about their past and then is presented with the facts of the case. It made for a very interesting story and I enjoyed it quite a bit. One of the more successful of the British Library Crime Classics.

Raymond Postgate’s name is virtually unknown today, but in his day, no less than Raymond Chandler lauded this novel, first published in 1940. Postgate makes his intention clear from the epigraph, which is by Karl Marx: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.” In other words, people make decisions emotionally based on their own histories and experiences, not on evidence and reason.

Rosalie van Beer, a selfish, social-climbing widow, is accused of poisoning to death her 11-year-old nephew, Philip Arkwright, whom she heartily disliked. (The feeling was, understandably, mutual.) His death left her a very wealthy woman. So did she kill the boy? Or is there another explanation? Postgate gives you the background of all 12 jurors — 10 men and two women — as well as of the accused and those around her, but it intensifies the tension rather than bogs down the suspenseful story.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and British Library Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for reissuing this British crime classic.

I'm glad to have come across this title, and enjoyed the structure. The first third of the book introduces us to the jurors who will hear a case. We then learn what brought a woman to trial for murder, and then we follow the jury in their deliberations.

Most British mysteries of the period are steeped in class, but this book turns on the differences among people who all meet the qualifications to serve on a jury. The jurors are weighing up not only the evidence, but their attitudes toward the principals in the case, and indeed each other. I don't want to say much about the course of the jury's deliberations, but they felt plausible to me.

If you enjoy British mysteries of the interwar period, this lesser-known title is well worth your time. I can see myself re-reading this book in a few years for its unusual construction.

This mystery is the classic story of how a jury views the evidence presented in a murder trial that is not cut-and dried. Rosalie van Beer is being tried for the poisoning of her eleven-year-old nephew Philip. The poison hererin was very exotic, although readily available in the form of ivy pollen from the overgrown vines in the back garden. Did she kill the young boy she hated? After all, she was no blood kin, having been married to his uncle for only four months before her husband was killed in WWI. She stood to inherit a nice amount of cash. Maybe it was the cook and her caretaker husband who also would inherit a tidy sum for retirement. Maybe it was a tragic accident helped by the senile doctor who did not recognize the symptoms and gave the wrong treatment. Or it could even be suicide. A very unhappy child had lost his parents in a plane crash and then his grandfather from a massive heart attack on the same day. He was withdrawn from his beloved school and lived in the household of a woman he hated because she gassed his pet rabbit claiming it was “dirty.” He was a clever lad, according to his tutor, well able to read up on poisons.

The chosen jury consists of a woman who got away with murder (not really a spoiler since it is revealed in the first chapter) and understands how simple it is to commit a crime. Included are a young woman who mistrusts the justice system because her husband was killed in a vicious attack and nothing much was done about it; a religious fanatic; a pompous classics professor who only accepts documentary evidence; a publican who had issues with the police. They, with the remaining jurors, hold Rosalie van Beer’s fate in their hands. Would they be right or wrong? The final section lets the reader know what actually happened.

This is a fantastic novel that has stood the time test since being published in 1940. The reader may become a bit cynical about how justice is really being served after reading Verdict of Twelve.

A jury of twelve who carry their own prejudices must bring in a verdict of a woman accused of murder.
It was just about interesting enough to finish reading to find the verdict, but not really any tension in the story.
Originally published in 1940.

According to the evidence...

A trial is about to commence and the jury is being sworn in. A death has occurred in unusual circumstances and a woman has been charged with murder. But the evidence is largely circumstantial so it will be up to the jury (and the reader) to decide whether the prosecution has proved its case…

The book has an unusual format, almost like three separate acts. As each jury member is called to take the oath, we are given background information on them; sometimes a simple character sketch, at others what amounts to a short story telling of events in their lives that have made them what they are. These introductions take up more than a third of the book before we even find out who has been murdered and who is on trial. When the trial begins, the reader is whisked out of the courtroom to see the crime unfold. Finally we see the evidence as it is presented at the trial and then follow the jury members as they deliberate. Despite this odd structure, I found it completely absorbing – each section is excellent in itself and together they provide a fascinating picture of how people’s own experiences affect their judgement of others.

In that sense, it’s almost like a precursor to Twelve Angry Men, although the comparison can’t be taken too far – in this one, we spend more time out of the jury-room than in, and the crime is entirely different. But we do get that same feeling of the jurors having only the limited information presented to them on which to form their judgement, and of seeing how their impressions of the various lawyers and witnesses affect their decisions. And we also see how, once in the jury room, some jurors take the lead in the discussions and gradually bring others round to agree with their opinion – a rather cynical portrayal of how the evidence might be distorted in either direction by people with strong prejudices of their own.

What I found so interesting about the first section is that Postgate uses his jury members to give a kind of microcosm of society of the time, The book was first published in 1940, but feels as if it’s set a couple of years before WW2 begins. Instead, the war that is mostly referred to is WW1, showing how the impact of that conflict is still affecting lives a couple of decades later. Postgate also addresses some of the issues of the day, lightly for the most part, though he does get a little polemical about the dangerous growth of anti-Semitism in British society – very forgivably considering the time of writing. A jury is an excellent device to bring a group of people together who would be unlikely to cross paths in the normal course of things – here we have a university professor, a travelling salesman, a domestic servant, a pub landlord, etc., all building up to an insightful look at the class structures within society. But we also see their interior lives – what has formed their characters: success, failure, love and love lost, greed, religious fervour.

I was also surprised at some of the subjects Postgate covered. One of the jurors allows him to give a rather more sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality than I’d have expected for the time. Another juror has clearly been used and abused by older men in his youth and has learned the art of manipulation and blackmail as a result – again in a very short space Postgate gives enough information for us to understand even if we can’t completely empathise with the character. There is the woman whose character was formed early by her hideous parents and a state that was more concerned with making her a valuable worker than a decent person. Each character is entirely credible and, knowing their background means we understand how they come to their individual decisions in the jury room.

The crime itself is also done very well. I’ve not given any details of it because part of the success of the story comes from it only slowly becoming obvious who is to be the victim and who the accused. It’s a dark story with some genuinely disturbing elements, but it’s lifted by occasional touches of humour. Again characterisation is key, and Postgate provides enough background for the people involved for us to feel that their actions, however extreme, are quite plausible in the context. After the trial, there is a short epilogue where we find out if the jury, and we, got it right.

I thoroughly enjoyed this – excellent writing, great characterisation, insightful about society, lots of interesting stories within the main story, and a realistic if somewhat cynical look at the strengths and shortcomings of the process of trial by jury. Easy to see why it’s considered a classic – highly recommended.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press.

I received a copy of this book in return for my independent honest review.
This is an interesting look at the members of the jury and how their personal beliefs and life experiences can affect the verdict by how they vote. This made me think how personal feelings must affect someone's fate to some extent, even though I do believe the British Justice system is a good one.
This took a long time to get into as it was a slow process introducing all twelve members of the jury.
At times I thought about not finishing it, but worth persevering as the second half more interesting. I enjoyed it as it was thought provoking, however not the best of reads for me, hence the 3*

"Verdict of Twelve" is a pleasant read with an unconventional plot. In some way, there isn't much of a mystery. As the story unfolded, I have the general ideas of what the case is about. Postgate's writing helps to maintain a good level of puzzlement that keeps me wonder from time to time. I was "nervous" while "waiting" for the jurors' consented verdict. When the case is closed, I couldn't help but smirk because the accused "innocence" is simply an irony.

The book is divided into three 3sections:

Section One- Background and the past history of the 12 juries that would ultimately govern their trains of thought during the trial and their decisions of the final verdict

Section Two- The case: The feud between the deceased and the accused. The day of the incidence. Motives. Witnesses. Suspects.

Section Three- The trial, the verdict, and the "confession."

The book is a great read overall but I was expecting a heavier emphasis on the psychological impacts/biases of the jurors based on their own individual histories which I believe is the supposed purpose of the book. What has offered by the author is adequate to illustrate their struggles but not enough in the sense of elaboration. But on the flip side, if Postgate lengthens the jurors' mental process the story could become stale and boring.

Such a great and unique read. Highly recommend!

Thanks Netgallery and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to preview the title prior to the official release.