A good read but not one I would recommend because the story dragged along and didn’t have that feeling of leaving you wanting more.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Even the most incorruptible juror can be unwittingly influenced by others’ opinions in the digital age, but more sinister forces are at work: jury tampering has reached all-time highs. Unexpected verdicts are coming down more and more often, indicating that shadowy groups may be blackmailing jurors—and leaving the American justice system in shambles. Is impartiality even possible anymore?
Victoria Lewis, former governor of Virginia, thinks it is—and she has a plan to fix the broken system. Her home state is about to select two hundred citizens to become full-time jurors. Those chosen will live in a refurbished prison for two years, where they’ll be completely isolated from society and protected from all outside influences.
But someone always finds a way to cheat the system. And when a deadly political conspiracy reveals corruption that poisons even the highest echelons of government, everything Victoria has created stands on the brink of destruction. Can she protect the jurors, the justice system—or even herself?

If you are going to read this book, I hope your ability to suspend disbelief is high - because you are going to need it...

I have given this three stars for the following reasons:

1 star: The author is quite capable of stringing words together to make sentences, and sentences into paragraphs. The writing style is crisp, clear and easy to follow. No problems there.
2 star: The action/thrills are exceptionally done. Some of the scenes just flew by. I think that was probably the highlight of this book - the ability to ratchet up the tension with great scenes and good writing.
3 star: I really do love good legal/courtroom thrillers but the market is saturated with the same old John Grisham-esque stories, that the genre had become a bit stale. Hats off to the author for at least trying to come up with a different scenario - and the attention to the details of that scenario have to be commended as well.

Why didn't it get more? Like I said, the plot is quite convoluted and by the time Victoria gets her plan off the ground, I was already thinking "No one is going to believe this..." If it had been set as a YA dystopian novel? Not a problem...but trying to pass it off as adult fiction, well, it was always going to struggle. The other reason is that there were just soooooo many characters and keeping them all in place in my head was difficult. A little streamlining of that aspect would have earned another star from me.

Overall, a good thriller novel, filled with some great action sequences. Just really hard to believe, is all...


Paul
ARH