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Final Appeal by Remigiusz Mróz, an audiobook narrated by Laurence Dobiesz is a legal thriller with some detective-style elements. Laurence Dobiesz has done a fantastic narration, making voices and intonations of different characters. I am not the biggest fan of male narrators, but I enjoyed it this time.
I was intrigued by the first part and enjoyed the second part but the third felt a bit too far stretched. I am not sure how I feel about the ending but in general, it's a good story.

The book is set in Poland and there were many Polish names which was fine with me (probably because I am Latvian) and I managed to follow the characters.

When criminal defense lawyer Joanna is assigned to Piotr Langer Jr, who is charged with a double murder she expects this will be her standard winning case. In her first visit with Piotr, she understands that nothing will be easy as her client simply will not agree to or deny his charges. He will speak short, well-structured sentences that will not give out any information.
The law firm's newest trainee Kordian dreamed about this day since he graduated university. He knows this is his big chance! He is ready for everything to make his triumphal way in the law world... but he didn't expect to work with Joanna and even less he expected to work on Piotr's case.
Soon both of them will realize that this case is not simply a "go and win in the courtroom" case. First, they must understand what's happened and it's not easy if the client is not talking. Even more, soon they will realize that they opened doors to the deep, dark world where the first rule is "survive".

Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this copy!

I am very much a lover of legal thrillers and courtroom drama. I didn't feel like I got what I was expecting with this book unfortunately. Part of that could be that it was set in Poland and some of the references that were made just didn't resonate for me. I also found it really difficult to keep track of all of the characters that came up along the way. The main lawyers I followed but the various names and where they fell within the plot was lost on me as I listened. The narration was very monotone and made this one a bit hard to finish as well.
I would consider this to be more of an investigative thriller that felt like it really dragged on. I might have missed something big along the way... but I just didn't feel like this was a typical legal thriller that I am used too.

I really struggled with this one, the narration was very wooden. The British accent was very monotone and not at all enjoyable for me. I persevered, but didn't do it for me. Found the writing a bit too flat, and a bit 'by men, for men'. I also only had a vague interest in the guy on trial and didn't really care about either of the defence lawyers either. Sorry for the bad review.

It was fun to get to read a legal drama set in a different part of the world and a different justice system. There's heavy mob influence here and the emphasis is definitely on the legal scene over the thriller/murder aspects, but it was overall engaging nonetheless.

Premise - a lawyer has to defend a man who was found cohabitating with two corpses for ten days. Yikes!

I think from the premise I expected a much more psychological thriller angle than what I got, which is probably why this was a 3 rather than a 4 for me, but I still really enjoyed the opportunity to read something from a different part of the world and think American readers will enjoy that.

📚 Series or Standalone: standalone
📚 Genre: legal drama
📚 Target Age Group: adult
📚 Cliffhanger: no

✨ Will I Reread: no
✨ Recommended For: fans of legal dramas that emphasis the courtroom aspect, especially those with interest in seeing what the justice system in Eastern Europe might look like.

💕 Characters: 3/5
💕 Writing: 3/5
💕 Plot: 4/5
💕 Pacing: 3/5
💕 Unputdownability: 2/5
💕 Enjoyment: 3/5
💕 Book Cover: 4/5

Thanks, NetGalley and Zaffre, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.