I loved this twist on a courtroom procedural. Ten years have passed since Maya and eleven others acquitted a man for murder. On leaving the courthouse they all found their lives would never be the same as they were roundly criticized, mocked and ostracized for their decision. Ten years later one of them puts together a reunion that once again changes all their lives once more. I loved the fast pace, twists and turns and the idea that having justice served never quite means what you think it does.

Thank to NetGalley for this ARC of The Holdout. The book has a quick pacing and style that many readers who enjoy legal thrillers will appreciate.. Each character was distinctive, and the twists and turns were always realistic. Nice page turner.

This is a very well crafted thriller that begins with a murder trial and ends, a decade later, as the members of the jury in one of L.A.'s highest profile cases reconvene to film a podcast and share their experienced, then and in the intervening years. It changed all their lives, and with the murder of one of the long ago jurors before he can prove they were wrong to let a killer go free, the one woman who stood in his way then is arrested for killing him. Now a successful defense attorney herself, Maya is stunned to find her pursuit of the truth, then and now, Maybe the killer who got away with the original crime is framing her. And maybe all the jurors she knew so well for so long ten years ago are the only ones who can save her now. In The Holdout, Moore has created fascinating characters grappling with what reasonable doubt really means, especially; Maya, the holdout of the title. It will take the same powers of persuasion that saved an innocent man from conviction then to save her own life now. Solidly y and cleverly plotted, with a denouement as startling as a compulsively readable novel like this one deserves.

This will be a short review, because the less you know about this book going in the better, but what a wild ride! While some parts of the plot were a bit far-fetched and reaching at times, it didn't cause my interest to wane, and if you can suspend the need for 100% believability, I think you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. We get two mysteries for the price of one in this book, and if that kind of a bargain doesn't sell you, then perhaps the exploration of social justice issues such as racism and profiling will. Clearly the author has some sort of experience in screen writing, and I can wholly see this being optioned for screen, a project I'd be thrilled to watch. Overall, this was a juicy, escapism type of read and I'd recommend it to those looking for an exciting way to pass the time in 2020.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!

Potential spoilers ahead. Not really any details, but about the structure of the plot after the big reveal. Be warned!

This book was hard to put down and had a great story, with the past and the present intertwining into one big ball of mystery. I think my only complaint was that the biggest twist wasn't entirely unpredictable, and right after the reveal the book just ends. Bam. Over. Just like that. In spite of that, I really enjoyed the twists and turns and getting to meet this cast. I liked Maya and felt like she was a great main character. Overall, I'd say it was a great book.

Four and a half stars that I just can't round up to five.

Maya Seale is an successful defense attorney she gets to this point to a move to California and response to attend to her civic duty to serve for jury duty. What is the harm she could do like some and come up with some lame excuse to get out of it but hey it should only last a day or two or maybe she will not get even picked. But she does and the trial deals with the disappearance and murder of a 15 year old high school girl and her teacher it appears that there may have been some inappropriate things taking place between them. When the time comes for deliberation to decide the teachers fate what seems to be a straight forward decision there is one "Holdout"
It is Maya. She convinces the rest of the Jury to change their vote one by one. When the decision comes out not guilty the jury becomes vilified by the public over this decision. Life will never be the same. One of the Jurist starts a quest to find new information to prove they made a mistake and the teacher was actually guilty. With new found information they bring the hated to jurist again on the 10 year anniversary to real new information, damning information. Things get interesting when the jurist ends up murdered himself. As the try to figure out who is the suspect many skeletons start to be revealed about each of the jurist, they all have something to hide. The first half of the book moves along at a pretty good pace but after that it takes off at lightning speed and there are many twist all the way to the very end and I mean the last couple of pages. Give this a read

This is a very nice mystery/thriller about a juror who becomes infamous for being the Holdout on a murder case, and then years later is accused of murder herself. Alternating with flashbacks of the first trial and doubts about whether the jury decided correctly on that case, is her attempt to solve the current murder and clear herself. It's a quick, well-written read with a great premise and an unexpected, twisty ending. However - I absolutely LOVED Graham Moore's the Last Days of Night, and unfortunately, the Holdout just didn't reach the same heights for me. Completely different genres, I know. Read it and enjoy it for what it is - it's a good story! Just don't expect the same magic. But I am very grateful to NetGalley and Random House of the e-arc. 3.5-4 stars.

Have you served as a juror? I always thought it’d be fascinating to be on a jury, but this book puts into perspective how this duty can have permanent consequences. .
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The Holdout follows a homicide trial (think O.J. Simpson), in which juror Maya is adamant that the defendant, Bobby Nock, is not guilty of murdering his fifteen-year-old student, thus persuading the group and delivering the controversial verdict. Ten years later, a true crime docuseries reassembles the jury, and one of the jurors is found dead in Maya’s hotel room. To prove her innocence, she must dissect the case which has followed her for a decade, and determine whether she set a killer free.
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I don’t usually read legal thrillers (as a lawyer, I get my daily fill of law), but this book is a blast. It’s concise with excellent plotting and fun twists. I didn’t figure this one out; my jaw dropped in the last few pages. Graham Moore is the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game, and his talent also shows as a novelist. Look out for this one in February! Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

“But the verdicts had nothing to do with truth. No verdict ever changed a person’s opinion.”

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of The Holdout in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this book did not work for me on a number of levels.

The premise is an intriguing one. Ten years ago, Maya Seale was the holdout juror on a murder trial all of America was watching (think OJ-type trial). After convincing her fellow jurors to acquit, they learn how deeply unpopular their decision was. Now, ten years later, a true-crime docuseries reassembles the jurors to discuss their decision in light of new evidence, but Maya, now a defense attorney, must prove her own innocence when one of them is found dead in her room.

The novel shifts back and forth from the original trial to current events, and the chapters in the past shift to the perspective of different jurors. However, all of that shifting left a surprising amount of the tale of the original trial deliberations untold. Why several jurors changed their minds is left unexplained. Worse, Maya’s actions in the present are just not believable. Even if you accept the unlikely coincidence of a fellow juror being found dead in her room, her actions to go hunting for clues while waiting to see if she would be arrested are just a series of things no lawyer would ever do.

This book is trying to address a lot of issues: juror misconduct, the intersections of justice with wealth, race, the media. But everything is done at such a surface level that it is unsatisfying. The Holdout might work as a screenplay, but I don’t think it worked as a novel.

This novel has an interesting premise, but it just didn’t quite come together for me. The pace was too slow and this one lacked the “un-putdownableness” that I want in a thriller.

Ten years ago fifteen year old Jessica Silver disappeared on her way home from school. The suspect is her twenty-five year old, African American teacher, Bobby Nock.

Maya Seale is a young woman serving on the jury in the case against Bobby, and, at first, she's the only thing between Bobby and a guilty verdict. Slowly, she convinces the other eleven jurors of, if not Bobby's innocence per se, than of the lack of evidence to convict him. The spotlight on their "not guilty" verdict changes all the jurors' lives in the intervening years.

Now, coming up on the ten year anniversary of the trial a TV show, Murder Town, is looking to reunite everyone involved as one of the jurors claims to have new information to reveal. As they all gather together, the controversy from ten years ago, and the impact their decision wrought, is close to the surface for all of them.

When a fellow juror is found dead in Maya's room, she'll have to dig up memories of the past in order to prove her innocence in the present.

The Holdout gives readers a behind the scenes look at our judicial system. The pros and cons. The biases, the deals struck. The rights and responsibilities of those who are supposed to be our "peers". All in the name of the "law". It's an interesting look and one that I don't think I've ever read about before in any fictitious sort of way. I felt a lot like we were seeing how broken the system is. How much it favors certain people over others. This idea is helped along by the alternating chapters in which we get each of the twelve juror's perspectives on the Bobby Nock case from ten years previous while they were serving. This ragtag group of people who, on a normal day, may have never interacted with one another were asked to be impartial and objective but who undoubtedly bring their thoughts, opinions, experiences to the table to determine a man's guilt or innocence. I enjoyed these parts the most mainly because there was still some questioning as to if his not-guilty verdict was the right decision. And some people who still had opinions and thoughts on their personal decision. I liked that we got to see how things unfolded.

The other chapters consist of Maya's perspective and her subsequent search for the murderer in order to exonerate herself. While these sections were interesting and the twists and turns certainly kept me glued to the page, some of the circumstances she becomes embroiled in felt too far-fetched. But like much fiction you have to take it all with a grain of salt.

I liked Maya, and her determination to make sure that justice is meted out to Bobby, to herself, to all the others with whom this case has haunted for the past ten years is valid and commendable. I liked seeing how her mind worked in relation to the law. After the case closed, Maya went on to become a defense attorney thereby solidifying herself within the echelons the judiciary system wanting to be able to uphold the law, but also in her own way unable to let go of this life-changing moment, like we see so many of the other jurors deal with as well in their own ways.

Overall, I found The Holdout to be an interesting read, and surprisingly thought-provoking. Graham Moore doesn't hide on making commentary of racial bias within the court system, but it's not forced commentary, it certainly has it's place within the story, but also speaks true as a picture of real life.

And if you're wondering, without spoilers, you're questions will be answered by the end. Graham Moore will not leave you hanging. Now, as to whether those answers are satisfactory, I think that also speaks a lot about the perception of justice.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Hodout by Graham Moore.
This is a suspenseful court room drama that mixes up a past crime with the current time. If you like the back and forth of attorneys, and the who dunnit type of books, this is one for you.
It's a good book and Moore has done a very good job with the writing and characters.
3 stars.

So excited to read this since the The Last Days of Night is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately this one just left me flat. The premise sounded interesting - we re-visit jurors 10 years after they gave the 'wrong' verdict in one of the most sensational trials in history. The author provided an interesting perspective with alternating chapters in the present and during the trial, 10 years earlier, with a chapter for each juror. I just found the current day scenario a bit far reaching. Lawyers know not to interfere, everyone knows people don't keep secrets - especially massively huge ones. The story was interesting, in that it did bring up a lot of questions/morals/values/ethics etc..., but once I got past that I just didn't think the plot held up. The current day murder just seemed like a way to re-visit the past murder and I just kept thinking there could have been a better, more intricate way for that to happen. Given the main juror went on to become a criminal lawyer, couldn't she have come across something in her work that her to re-visit the old trial? I think all her meddling would have then made some sense. I also think that could have helped with a gradual unfurling of the mystery and created some suspense which I thought was lacking.

An intriguing courtroom drama. The story is well constructed and told in both the present and the past, when the jury make a decision that will change their lives.

This is a stunning well crafted mystery/courtroom drama which kept me intrigued to the very end. After reading this I’m not so sure I’d want to be on a jury. The endless hours of DNA evidence, days of conflicting testimony and then finally the case is in the hands of the twelve men and women who are bound to do their duty. In the case of Bobby Nock a young black teacher who supposedly killed a teenage white student with whom he was having an affair, this jury did just that but were castigated after the trial by the public and media. Ten years later and they are all together again for a TV program but things go awry when one of the jurors is found dead.
The author does a wonderful job of weaving the plot as he goes from past to present and tells us a little bit more about each juror. I think the characters are well developed for the most part. This is a awesome book with lots of clever twists and turns that I didn’t expect. Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review

Thanks Netgalley and Random House for sharing an advance copy of Graham Moore’s latest novel. I did not enjoy this as much as previous works I’ve read by the author. There were some interesting twists that kept me reading, but overall I wasn’t very invested in any of the characters and felt like I could take it or leave it.

Great read that was hard to put down. Jumping from past to present kept me on my toes keeping details and names straight. The power of a jury to decide someone's fate was a prominent theme as well as the legal system's failure to value truth above a quick conviction. Had to keep reading to get all my questions answered asap!

When jurors are assigned to the trial of a man accused of killing a student, they realize that they are ticking off that "civic duty" box with a little extra flair. Ten years after their fateful verdict, the jurors are getting together for a prime-time look back. When one of them is found dead in a hotel room, the old case comes back to haunt them all Told from multiple perspectives and across timelines, this mystery will keep readers guessing all the way to the end.

I loved this book! I always enjoy a good courtroom drama, and The Holdout provides that in a refreshing way. With the jurors of a controversial court case reuniting after 20 years, new evidence is promised, new murders are committed and new suspects emerge. Just when I thought the story was over, Graham Moore gives us not one but two jaw-dropping twists. This is a fun read that does not disappoint.

4 courtroom jury stars

Ah, the dread when that envelope shows up in your mailbox that you’ve been selected to show up for jury duty. I’ve been summoned several times, but I’ve never served on a jury. After reading this book, I don’t think I want to, especially not a high profile, drawn out case!!

I didn’t realize that this author wrote the screenplay for “The Imitation Game” – fabulous movie! Knowing that now, I can see how this book almost seems like it was made for the big screen. This one was the perfect one to read on a recent vacation. I thought that I would just read a few chapters of it and decide which book to read, soon I was 50% into it and wondering how it would all turn out.

We start the tale with Maya Seale, now a high-powered defense attorney, and slowly learn the details of her high-profile time on a jury that eventually led her to a career in law. The case involved an African-American high school teacher and a white student at his private school. The student is dead and the teacher is on trial for her murder. The jury returns a verdict that leads to a great deal of public outcry and Maya’s life will never be the same.

We do learn many of the details of the trial, the sequestration of the jury, and how they come to their decision. There is a lot of action 10 years later too when a reunion is held, and another murder occurs. I don’t want to give much more away, there are a lot of twists, many surprising to this reader. I figured out a few things but enjoyed the ride. I did learn more about the jury process and it is fascinating to think about the dynamics of your “peers” deciding your fate.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Graham Moore for an early copy of this one to read in return for an honest review.