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The blurb...
Can Rook keep his criminal past a secret when facing the most dangerous case of his life?
Thirteen men have died in a London prison. Barrister Elliot Rook QC, who risks losing everything if his secret criminal past is revealed, must defend Charli Meadows, the vulnerable single mother accused of smuggling the deadly tainted drugs inside.
But just as Rook becomes suspicious of those closest to Charli, a note arrives at his flat – threatening violence if the trial is not called off.
While Rook battles to defend Charli and protect himself, his young protégé Zara Barnes is fighting for her livelihood. In a few short weeks, only one tenancy at the legal chambers will be available to the ever-multiplying mass of pupils. Determined to make it hers, Zara takes on her biggest solo case yet.
But will her gamble pay off?
My Review...
I would like to thank Net Gally, Bloomsbury publishing and Raven books for this Advanced reader copy (A.R.C) in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Post mortem is the tale of Elliot Rook the once homeless barrister now fighting for justice in the courts as well as the odd spot of breaking and entering and occasional punching of a known criminal, his protege is the young and equally feisty Zara who is coming to the end of her time as a junior with Rook's law firm and the big guns at the company must soon decide wether to keep her or not offer her a place at chambers. Against the backdrop they take on two new cases. A prison officer accused of smuggling a deadly batch of drugs that has killed several inmates is taken by Rook, while Zara gets a case of alleged wrong place, wrong time when a young man is arrested as a drug dealer in a police pub raid. As they work together they realise that their cases are connected and a new drug gang is behind them both.
I found the plot interesting and twisty enough to keep me turning the page. The depictions of crime and drug ridden Leyton in London and the speech patterns of the locals did seem stereotypical but then again they may be justified as I have never been there 🤷♂.
I think I would have enjoyed the book much more if it were a bit more realistic, in that Rook rose from homelessness to barrister, even being homeless through his early semesters as junior barrister. It all seems a bit too far fetched for me. Make him a working class lad done well (like the actual author/barrister) by all means but just can't see a practising, albeit junior, barrister living on the street.
I believe this book is the second in a series. It can just about be read as a stand alone but there is a fair bit of reference to Rooks earlier adventures.
An enjoyable legal thriller/whodunnit, with an interesting plot. It also had engaging lead characters (in my head Rook was played by Alan Davies of Q.I. fame, must have been the curly hair.)
Selected quotes....
‘You think he’s still dangerous?’ Zara asked. ‘Everybody is dangerous. If you don’t realise that soon, then you’re both going to end up in the ground.’
The houses were small, terraced, squashed up together like drunks in a crowd. ‘It’s this one?’ Zara said as I stepped through a front gate onto gravel that was more dandelion than stone. ‘She’s no Tony Montana.’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...
Born the son of a coal miner, Gary Bell QC left school without any qualifications and drifted in and out of a number of jobs before being convicted of fraud aged eighteen. He then spent two years penniless and homeless in Europe, before returning to his studies aged twenty-one and, after seven years, became a barrister. He has spent the last thirty years at the Bar, becoming a QC in 2012. He specialises in defending major fraud and murder trials
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