Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for the advance of The Holdout. All opinions expressed are my own. I loved this book...the premise, the characters, and the plot. I was taken in by the first page and didn't stop reading. I loved the transitioning between the past and current, giving us answers bit by bit. This book was well done, and it's a highly recommended read.

Very suspenful and engaging. It will keep you on the edge of your seat as you try to figure out just what's going on. Pick up this amazing book and prepare to loose time because it's hard to put down. Happy reading!

Happy PUB DAY to 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘵 by Graham Moore!✼⁣
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★★★★ (4/5)⁣
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The less you know about this book, the better. Let the record state, however, that although this book may seem like a quick read...it packs a punch! ⁣
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Maya Seale is a juror on a famous, highly publicized case, later becoming known for convincing her fellow jurors of the convicted's innocence (against popular opinion). A decade later, a docuseries is being produced about this particular jury and tables immensely turn as one of them is found dead in Maya's hotel room...making her a leading suspect. ⁣
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This was wild! I have read thoughts that this may be a little overly dramatic and some twists/scenes may be unbelievable, but I didn't really find that to be the case. The plot was masterfully organized and the set up by Moore was everything a legal thriller should be. Shock factors left and right!⁣
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The author does a great job jumping timelines (during the first trial and present day after the juror murder), and it was interesting to get a glimpse into each juror's eyes throughout the book, with a chapter or two dedicated to their perspective. In truth, I reallllly wanted more, though! 1-2 short chapters didn't feel like enough, and I do think the book could afford to be longer. ⁣
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One of my first legal thrillers and overall a great time! Out today!⁣

A young woman from a very wealthy family disappears. A teacher from her school is arrested and placed on trial. Enter the jury.

This is a very different, original story told from the perspective of the jury. There are so many hot button factors, the victim is white and wealthy, the defendant black and struggling, that it is easy to be drawn into the jury's deliberation. As the "holdout" who ultimately convinces the jury to render a not guilty verdict, the main character feels she has done her civic duty and can close the book on this experience.

But closing one door often leads to another being forced open. Fast forward 10 years, Maya, the "holdout" juror, is now an attorney herself. How her jury service affected her career choice is clear. The media coverage of the trial and each anniversary of the verdict, keep the verdict fresh in the jury panel's lives. A reunion of the jury has been scheduled as a podcast, drawing unwanted attention to Maya and her influential arguments while on the jury. When a contentious juror is murdered, Maya finds herself as the primary suspect. Now she must use everything she has learned to prove her innocence.

Graham Moore is an accomplished screen play writer who has won an Academy Award. His story telling is spellbinding and visual. You "see" the jury's arguments. You "see" the media's frenzy. This book is so good, it deserves much more than 5 stars. It was well worth my reading time and I'm recommending it to my book buddies. Treat yourself today and read this book.

As a fan of "Last Days of Night," also by Graham Moore, I was particularly excited to read "The Holdout," and I was not disappointed. From the outset, Moore draws us in to a controversial murder trial (where the victim's body was never found), presenting intimate details of the jurors' lives and their respective relationships with one another. This is a terrific book club title, chock full of discussion points: race, the criminal justice system, issues of wealth and influence, and terrific twist at the end. I recommend this book to fans of legal thrillers, including John Grisham and Scott Turow.

I really liked the setup on this. Ten years ago, Mia Seale convinced an entire jury to set a man free, despite being the only one to initially believe in his innocence. In the present day, a true crime docuseries claims to have new information about the case and the jury gets back together to discuss how they’d vote now. This jumped right into the action, but got a bit far- fetched by the end. I’m fascinated with juries and and the criminal justice process, so I really liked getting a look inside the process. You end up getting two mysteries for the price of one and a ton of twists. There were many times when I had to shake my head at how reckless Mia was, but the ending was satisfying and things get things resolved. There were interesting thoughts on race and bias, but I think it took on a bit too much. I gave it a 3.75!

This is an excellent legal thriller! The lines are drawn between race and justice it seems. If you are a fan of legal suspense, then I highly recommend this book!

This book starts out with a bang and doesn’t let up until the very last word! Told in two time frames there is not one, but two intertwined mysteries! The back story centers around the murder trial of Jessica Silver. The current story once again centers around the case as the jurors get together 10 years later for one night for a docuseries taping. Fast paced and twisty, this book while a bit on the unbelievable side, was a very entertaining read that touches on racism and legal injustice.

Turning the final page of this legal thriller had this reader racing to re-watch “Twelve Angry Men”. Many adaptations of this courtroom conundrum have been spooled out in the 50 odd years since the original, and this version was well executed. Maya Seale plays both juror and defense attorney in 2 timelines, artfully woven together in this thriller, which successfully tackles 21st century themes.

“In an adversarial system, it is the solemn duty of both adversaries to do their very best to win. Let the system worry about producing truth.” In Mr. Moore’s latest novel the truth takes on various meanings, at times benefitting unexpected characters. Fans of this author will devour this very readable new work.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House publisher for the ARC provided.

What a powerful book!! That’s my first impression after I finished reading it. The whole mystery, how the jurors play their important roles for someone else’s life, all of this is opening my eyes “what is a jury duty” about. Fast read, full with tense, completed with legal perspective from the start until the end.

Have to say this reminds me of “12 Angry Men” movie where one juror can change the situation from A to Z and change the verdict. With this one, it expands more important roles of them, more stories for each other jury. how they have to stay unite to reach one verdict, doesn’t matter how difficult it is. Last but not least, I love how the author put woman as the main character in this book. She’s strong, intelligent, a criminal defense lawyer and never give up. Girl power!!

All good! Excellent! Bravo!!

I'm always looking for a fresh voice in legal thrillers. I want non-stop action, current, cutting edge topics torn from the headlines, and I want it to read like something I could/would watch on the big screen or my TV. The Holdout by Graham Moore delivers on all fronts!

An interesting update on the sequestered-jury story and a valid critique of the U.S. justice system. As a thriller, I was drawn in and kept in suspense throughout the twists and turns in the plot. Some of the scenes in the past were handled more clumsily and the relationship arc was obvious, but I enjoyed this overall and have continued to think about it after finishing it a week ago.

This is a tricky one- no spoilers for the twists! Maya, now a defense attorney, was the one person who believed that Bobby did not kill Jessica when she served on his jury ten years ago. She managed to persuade the others to her point of view (and as you'll learn, some of them had their own reasons for changing their vote to not guilty). Now, Rick, another juror- and her lover during the trial- is found dead in her hotel room during a reunion of the jury. Maya is arrested for murder and then sets out to find first Bobby and then the truth. The truth not only about who killed Rick but about Bobby and Jessica as well. This moves back and forth between the 2009 trial and 2019 and it offers perspectives from each of the jurors although the focus is Maya. It's smart, carefully plotted, well written, and engaging in a way that some legal thrillers are not- you will actually care about these people. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a page turner that I very much enjoyed.

Sorry, i just don't buy it.

The book is definitely a page-turner, and I enjoyed trying to figure out the twists, but the elephant in the room here is the alleged statutory rape at the center of the mystery. The author consistently treats the purported liaison between a fifteen year old and her teacher as a scandalous affair and not child molestation, which is how the law would see it. Characters consistently gloss over or ignore/minimize this, including two female jurors with teenage daughters. Sorry, I don't buy it.

A decent mystery solidly told, but that huge blind spot kept me from fully diving in or suspending my disbelief for the rest of it.

Wow! I don’t usually like legal thrillers but this one is fantastic. It’s not just about a trial and its aftermath, but there is a new murder and a whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie. Flashbacks to the original trial, each focusing on a different juror, alternate with the events in the present and the plot is completely unpredictable. The crime in the past was never truly solved and the one in the present could send the main character to jail for life if she doesn’t figure out what happened. There are many twists, all of them great, but it’s the characters that make this novel not only suspenseful but truly good. They each have their opinions and backstories, and the chapters devoted to each juror really show it. For instance, a character who’s been in the theatre business compares an event to an author who is not a household name, while a less educated character focuses on more mundane things and uses a humbler language. It’s like the characters wrote their own chapter. It’s also fascinating to see a trial from the eyes of the jury, how they may know less than regular people because so much is kept from them and the truth doesn’t really matter. Lastly, this is politics done right. The characters are all from different ethnic backgrounds, which influences their political opinions so there is no right or wrong, just a matter of perspective. What a liberal white woman may perceive as racism may not be the same thing as a black man. They may not be perfect people, but they are perfect characters for a nearly perfect novel.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Random House!

This book grabbed me from the get go.
The anniversary of a notorious case brings the jury back together.
Two mysteries kept me engrossed and the writing was well paced and by the end, I could only think “wow”.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

The Holdout was pretty fun to read. I did wonder about the descriptions of jury duty. I mean, I've been on five juries, all in southern California, with one being a murder trial and one being an attempted murder by a gang on police officers. And never were we separated for jury selection or told we couldn't learn each other's names from day one.

Beyond the discrepancies in the court system (No mention of mandated reporting?), I enjoyed the book. It never really felt suspenseful, though. I was interested in what happened to everyone involved. So, I kept reading. We learned a little about the people who served and there seemed to be an attempt to throw out red herrings. I wish I had connected with Maya more. I think that was the disconnect that kept this from being a 5. I didn't connect with the story or the characters. Still, I went back and forth between 3 and 4. This book was good, better than OK and not great.

Great book! I went in thinking it was going to be one story, but I was pleasantly surprised with the many twists and turns the story took. The story held my interest from the very beginning and the twists kept coming even through the last few pages. The writing was good and the author did a great job of keeping the plot moving at a steady pace through all the different perspectives. All in all a very good book. Would highly recommend for anyone who likes mysteries and legal thrillers. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for granting me access to this advance reader copy. I will be posting this review today to my Bookstagram and companion Facebook page, @thatreadingrealtor.

I finished this and typed up my thoughts about it while on a cross country flight, then landed only to realize that everything I’d written was somehow lost because Google Drive failed to save it. What I’d written was brilliant and insightful (naturally), but instead of getting that, you’re gonna get this:

This was a great mystery that had me hooked from the beginning. Graham Moore’s writing is very tight, and I would describe his storytelling as cerebral. It is more about analysis and strategy, and less about emotion and character development. More head than heart. At times, this left me feeling a little cold while reading it, but the plot and themes were so interesting that I could easily look past any chilliness.

This story explores how very gray the justice system can be, especially when it comes to verdicts being decided by juries. The entire process is not about getting to the truth; it is about winning an argument in whatever way possible, including presenting fiction as fact. It allowed me to understand a bit more how juries actually operate and what dirty tactics defense attorneys and prosecutors may resort to at times. I also very much appreciated some of the truthful exploration of racial issues and racial tension in this, as well as how the story highlighted the inequities in our justice system when it comes to socioeconomic status.

The pacing was great, there were some good surprises and the ending wrapped up in a very tidy, satisfying and ‘Hollywood’ type of way. If you like mysteries, thrillers and court room dramas, you should definitely give this a read!!

Description:
It’s the most sensational case of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune, vanishes on her way home from school, and her teacher, Bobby Nock, a twenty-five-year-old African American man, is the prime suspect. The subsequent trial taps straight into America’s most pressing preoccupations: race, class, sex, law enforcement, and the lurid sins of the rich and famous. 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, convinced of Nock’s innocence, persuades the rest of the jurors to return the verdict of not guilty, a controversial decision that will change all their lives forever.

Flash forward ten years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jury, with particular focus on Maya, now a defense attorney herself. When one of the jurors is found dead in Maya’s hotel room, all evidence points to her as the killer. Now, she must prove her own innocence—by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed.

As the present-day murder investigation weaves together with the story of what really happened during their deliberation, told by each of the jurors in turn, the secrets they have all been keeping threaten to come out—with drastic consequences for all involved.

A huge thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

#netgalley #theholdout

‘Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune, vanishes on her way home from school, and her teacher, Bobby Nock, a twenty-five-year-old African American man, 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, convinced of Nock’s innocence, persuades the rest of the jurors to return the verdict of not guilty, a controversial decision that will change all their lives forever.’

WOW, that ending I have to admit shocked me and irritated me at the same time, even though I knew deep down-as I eagerly flipped through the pages-exactly how a few parts of this twisted murder mystery would play out, I was hoping beyond hope that I would be wrong - My heart!!

THE HOLDOUT is told using two timelines woven together (which I liked), the first being 2019 wherein, ten years after the trial that changed the lives of twelve people forever including that of fellow juror Maya Seale-now Defense Attorney, quickly finds herself in need of representation after being arrested for murder.

I don’t want to give too much away about the narrative, I will say that suspension of disbelief in some parts may be required, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this novel, though other readers opinions may differ.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing, for loaning me an advance eBook of THE HOLDOUT in exchange for an honest review.

Available now for preorder and scheduled to release on February 18, 2020.

Two more books that I can’t wait to read by Graham Moore, THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT, and THE SHERLOCKIAN.