The Holdout Published by Random House Publishing Group on May 11, 2021 Genres: Fiction / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Crime, Fiction / Thrillers / Legal
Pages: 336
Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon
Goodreads
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong? From the Academy Award–winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and bestselling author of The Last Days of Night. . . .
An ID Book Club Selection • In development as a limited series starring and executive produced by Amy Adams
“Exhilarating . . . a fiendishly slippery game of cat-and-mouse suspense and a provocative, urgent inquiry into American justice (and injustice) in the twenty-first century.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the WindowIt’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 entwines 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.
Review:
This book was fast-paced, and I could not put it down!
If you are a big fan of CSI and Law and Order, this book is right up your alley! I loved the way that the author compartmentalized the different characters and had you guessing what the outcome would be. I also really loved the character development of the main character. She was strong, hard-headed, and depressing all in one.
I liked how we got the viewpoint of most of the jurors from the original case, the way we got to see how the whole process of being a juror works, the intricate way clues were woven throughout the book, and boy, did I not see the ending coming at all. The holdout was better than I expected going in, and I am glad I gave it a shot.
About Graham Moore
Graham is a New York Times-bestselling novelist and Academy Award-winning filmmaker.
His novels — THE WEALTH OF SHADOWS (2024), THE HOLDOUT (2020), THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT (2016), and THE SHERLOCKIAN (2010) — have been published in 24 countries and translated into 19 languages. THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer, while THE SHERLOCKIAN was nominated for an Anthony Award for best first novel.
His screenplay for THE IMITATION GAME (2014) won the Academy Award, WGA Award, and PEN Award, and was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. His film directorial debut THE OUTFIT (2022) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, was nominated for a British Independent Film Award and was named one of the 10 best films of the year by the Houston Chronicle.
Graham lives in Los Angeles with his wife and sons.
