Right from the first chapter I was hooked on this book and just knew nothing else would get done until I finished reading it. Again Jo Spain has written a book that had me frantically turning the pages to get to the bottom of this mystery. I found the dementia storyline very well dealt with and although I don’t want to give away spoilers it makes you think what would you do if you were ever in that awful situation.

The Trial by Jo Spain

2014, Dublin: at St Edmunds When Theo sneaks out of Dani's room he doesn't wake Dani. Having been together for two years already, the twenty year olds spend all their free time together and at first Dani thinks Theo may have wanted to get an early start on his studies in the library. But when days, then weeks go by, Dani is heartbroken and frantic. She goes to extreme ends to find Theo but keeps bumping into dead ends. The police brush her off, the school gives her kind brush offs, things don't add up, and Dani thinks something very bad must have happened.

2024, Dublin: at St Edmunds Now Dani is back at St Edmunds as a professor. She has never forgotten Theo, far from it, but she has other worries now. Her mother is in a care home in the last stages of dementia. At least her mother can't hurt herself on her own anymore, she's far past that sort of danger due to her dementia. But there are other dangers for patients in this world and Dani is on a mission to put a stop to some of them.

The story continually goes back and forth from 2014 to 2023/2024 and we learn slowly, oh so slowly, just what Dani is up to by being back at St Edmunds. A few names and faces from 2014 are still at St Edmunds in 2024 and Dani has to tread carefully. I don't usually care for too much going back and forth in time, over and over, but it worked well for me with this story. The way the chapters are set up, I'd get to the end of one and even though I needed to go to bed, I just couldn't stop at each chapter end. I lost some sleep with this one but the mystery was worth it.

Thank you to Quercus Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A great book, full of intelligent information mixed with a great plot and good characters. A recommended read.

Up on Goodreads now, live on the blog on 22 April:

Let me start by saying: man, I love Jo Spain! Her books always grab me right away and what may seem like a rather simple premise always turns out to be a magnificently twisty and intricately lush story. The Trial is no different.

The blurb keeps it nice and vague, and so shall I. I shall keep this so short and sweet, it may very well become my shortest review ever. If I thought I could get away with a “just read it”, I’d do it. This is a story you need to immerse yourself in and discover for yourself.

The Trial has a dual timeline, 2014 and 2024, and honestly, I found both of them equally engrossing. I also loved the setting, I do enjoy an academic setting. Besides your typical thriller elements, The Trial has another element I found fascinating: medical research, a drug trial, and the lobbying that goes with it. Don’t worry if that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, it doesn’t get particularly medical or technical and this is not a medical thriller by any means. But for me, it was a fun little bonus.

The Trial is a fantastic thriller that had me hooked from the first chapter. I had an absolutely brilliant time with it and I would highly recommend it to any and all thriller fans.

The Trial is out in digital formats, audio and hardcover on 25 April.

Massive thanks to Quercus and NetGalley for the digital proof. All opinions are my own.

This was a well written thriller which I thoroughly enjoyed. I found the Alzheimers storyline heartbreaking, it is such a horrific disease.
The drug trial parts to be honest I found slightly hard going at times but that was probably just me.
Plenty of twists and surprises and your perception of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys constantly change. A satisfying, but sad, conclusion.

Another twisty thriller from the pen of Jo Spain, involving medical shenanigans, missing persons and academia.

An addictive plot with some excellent characters and the setting is intriguing, the story itself is clever and involving.

Easily devoured this is terrific.

Dani and Theo are students at St Edmund’s College and are in love. One morning Theo leaves Dani who’s still asleep and disappears forever breaking Dani’s heart.
Ten years later Dani returns to St Edmund’s ostensibly as a junior professor but really undercover to investigate the seemingly miraculous results of a new drug to treat Alzheimers, a condition that Dani’s mother now suffers. But this is also the same department where Theo studied and it brings back painful memories for Dani.
Like all the books of Jo Spain’s that I have read, this one grabs the reader from the start and doesn’t let go until the end. As an academic myself, the setting for this one particularly resonates and the struggle for research funding is more than pertinent. Corruption in academia seems to be a side effect of this funding model. Loved the way this mystery unfolded and although fictional, unfortunately in this climate it’s not entirely unsurprising!

The ever excellent Jo Spain's new book is a fabulous read, as ever.

The trial here is not a legal one but a medical one, centring around a new drug which can not only halt but actually reverse the effects of Alzheimer's. (Unfortunately, no such drug really exists.) For Dani, whose mother Cora has been devastatingly impacted by early onset dementia, the trial has a particular resonance. As a new lecturer at a Dublin-based university, where she was once a student, she is soon caught up in the issues around the medical research. Then there's the mystery surrounding her former boyfriend, Theo, who disappeared years earlier when both were students.

It's best not to say too much about what happens, as there are quite a few surprises, but suffice to say it's an excellent read. The portrayal of dementia and its impacts on the individual and those around them is sensitively and insightfully done.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

Tremendous…
Following events of 2014, Dee is somewhat reluctant to make a return to St Edmunds in 2024. Eager for a new start, however, she does just that - after all, events of the past are only a part of her pressing issues. A stunning novel of suspense with a superbly drawn and atmospheric academia setting, a deftly drawn and credible cast of characters and an intriguing and contemporary plotline bubbling with secrets, twists and red herrings. Tremendous.

2014, St Edmunds College Dublin, an elite university.

Early one morning, medical student, Theo Laurent quietly leaves his much loved girlfriend, Dani MacLochlainn, believing it to be for the best. Dani grows increasingly concerned and then overwhelmed with worry for him and nothing she learns is making any sense.

In September 2024, Dani returns to St Edmunds as a history tutor, a place she vows she’ll never return as her heart shatters ten years previously. Why has she returned to a place that has such bad memories for her? Perhaps she needs a fresh start and a distraction as her beloved mother Cora is now in the advance stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Whatever her reasons, nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

You know those books you begrudge setting to on side when real life dares to get in the way? This is one of those as the excellent Jo Spain knocks it out of the park with this utterly compelling new thriller. She has written some very good books, but this is the author at her peak, at her very best, in my opinion. I don’t want to say much about what lies at the heart of this but what I can say is that it’s totally believable and makes for mesmerising reading. It’s immersive from beginning to end and a real page turner.

The plot is extremely well thought out, the acadamia setting is terrific, adding an atmosphere all of its own. I really like the character of Dani who has a lot to bear. It’s full of tension and suspense with numerous excellent twists and turns. There are vibes from the start, off notes, moments of discomfort and palpable anxiety, which changes becoming more and more chilling and dangerous the deeper it goes. My suspicion antenna twitches furiously in several directions and one fools me completely.

I think this is a cracker of a read and I get off the rollercoaster ride with the greatest of reluctance. The ending is just as good as the beginning and the middle (hallelujah) and I like the outcome and the tone of the ending which fits perfectly. A highly recommended read.

With thanks to NetGalley, and especially to Quercus Books for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

#TheTrial #NetGalley
2014, Dublin: at St Edmunds, an elite college on the outskirts of the city, twenty-year-old medical student Theo gets up one morning, leaving behind his sleeping girlfriend, Dani, and his studies - never to be seen again. With too many unanswered questions, Dani simply can't accept Theo's disappearance and reports him missing, even though no one else seems concerned, including Theo's father. Ten years later, Dani returns to the college as a history professor. With her mother suffering from severe dementia, and her past at St Edmunds still haunting her, she's trying for a new start. But not all is as it seems behind the cloistered college walls - meanwhile, Dani is hiding secrets of her own.
Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for giving me an advance copy.

Jo Spain always delivers interesting, complex and cleverly conceived stories. She has a way of drawing you into the emotions and experiences of her characters and this book is no exception.

Dani has never got over losing her uni boyfriend Theo to an Apparent suicide. it is one of the things that led her to abandon her university degree and enter the police force instead.

Ten years later, Dani is living in very different circumstances, when she is given an undercover assignment at the same university where she and Theo were studying. Reluctant to return when she discovers that the department under investigation is the same medical facility where Theo studied, she is given no choice.

And then she discovers that the drug trial she is looking into may have some link to Theo's initial disappearance and subsequent death...

Told in two alternating timelines of 2014 and 2024, this one is well worth your time. It gets 4.5 stars.

This was INCREDIBLE. Maybe because I haven't have a new Jo Spain in a while and I forgot how good she is, or because of how she connects you with the characters and sucks you in from the beginning. I really didn't want this book to end.

Easy 5 stars for the new Jo Spain book. She never fails to impress me with her page turning thrillers and this might be one of her best yet. I could not stop reading it and ended up demolishing it in just a few hours. It was dark, emotional and twisty and I loved every minute of it.

Dani is returning to St Edmunds College 10 years after she left. Now she is a history lecturer, but in 2014 she was a student in love. The love her of her life, Theo, just vanished one day and she has never recovered. Now she is back and still looking for answers, as she deals with her mother’s Alzheimers.

Through alternate timelines, we learn about Dani and Theo and what happened in 2014 and how it links up to today. I felt that the author did a really great job dealing with such a sensitive subject, and I had tears in my eyes reading some of the scenes with Dani and her mother.

Nothing is really what is seems and I loved that I was kept guessing throughout.

Thank you so so much to Quercus for the early copy of this book to read. Always a pleasure to read this authors work.

Published on April 25th

I'm a huge fan of Jo Spain and have read all of her previous novels (and the Tom Reynolds series more than once), but despite my excitement by being offered the chance to read The Trial by Quercus Books, I had to stop and think for a few moments. The topic of dementia is central to the overall storyline and for me, this I'd both a very personal topic and one that I struggle to read about in nonfiction. In fact, I've started and put aside numerous novels where dementia formed part of the storyline but I opted to read The Trial regardless. Why, you might ask? Well, in previous works, Spain has handled sensitive topics (such as domestic abuse and the Magdalene laundries) in a sensitive manner, despite a sensational storyline. So, I trusted that she would have researched her topic and would be sensitive in her approach. And thankfully, this proved to be the case.
In The Trial, we have a dual timeline
- 2014 Dani as a history student at the prestigious St. Edmunds College, at the time of her boyfriend Theo's disappearance
- 10 years later, Dani has returned to St. Edmund's as a history lecturer, where she learns that the university is involved in a series of trials of a new, and groundbreaking, dementia medication.
Dani is soon plunged into an investigation to determine what really happened to Theo and if the results of the trials can really be trusted.
As the situation becomes increasingly tense, Dani realises that she is in danger and the events from a decade ago, have still to play out.
This is a fast-paced novel, and there is no doubt that I worked my way through a lot of tissues, especially when reading the very sweet scenes between Dani and her mother. But it is an intriguing thriller and one that raises many moral questions. Now, hurry and read it so I can talk about it with you all!

4.5/5

Thank you so much Quercus and Net Galley for an advance copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

The book follows dual time lines of Dani in 2014, she is a History student at elite college St Edmunds where her boyfriend Theo goes missing. 10 years later she returns to the college as a lecturer where she makes a friend Colm who is working on clinical trials for new Alzheimer medication.

Jo Spain has knocked it out the park once again. I love how no 2 books of her are the same. This is nothing like what she’s written in the past but it’s still incredible!

If you love your Mum or if anyone you know has suffered from Alzheimer’s - you are going to sob your heart out and ugly cry 😭

Even though this is a thriller, it’s heartbreaking, clever and it sparks a real moral debate.

Everyone needs to read this for two reasons! The first… it’s incredible, why would you not want to read it. 😉 And secondly and selfishly, I need you to read it so we can discuss!! 😂

I’ve loved all of Jo Spain’s previous books, but this is probably her best one yet and my favourite.
I inhaled it in almost one sitting. The plot is unique, intriguing and comes with plenty of twists. It’s definitely one of my top reads this year.

Thank you to Netgallery and the publisher for this ARC. The publication date is the 25th April. This book tugged at my heart strings a lot it was very emotional and explores the topic of Alzheimer’s and I found myself welling up at times!

I was glued to the plot and raced through the pages! I love this authors writing style and look forward to many more of her books 😊

Overall, another additive and gripping read by Jo Spain!

Jo Spain knocks it out of the park once again with this legal thriller! Loved the suspenseful and intricate plot!

When I received the email inviting me to read the new Jo Spain book, I genuinely let out a little squeal! Every year she consistently makes my Top 10 books of the year post, and I can't imagine this year will be any different.

I just adore her writing style - it is so beautifully descriptive that the reader immediately feels immersed in the world she has created. I could picture the characters and college so easily. The plot was engaging, and I enjoyed switching between past and present and gaining clues to what was going on.

The subject was quite an emotional one - I imagine many readers will have known and loved someone with Alzheimers and I could really relate to the main character's internal battle of wanting to believe that a pharmaceutical company had found a cure, but also maintaining a healthy amount of scepticism.

I think this book was absolutely fantastic, an easy 5 stars.