I wish I could say this was a great legal thriller but it wasn't. I heard the author at a conference and he was very engaging and passionate about the law and the unevenness of how people are charged and sentenced, but that passion did not come through in this book. There were a lot of characters but no development. I wasn't interested in any of them and felt I had no one to root for. The prosecutor and defense attorney were both highly unlikable. The murder plot was spun out so erratically I had a hard time figuring out what happened, and transitions to background scenes from the lives of the jurors were abrupt. The whole thing felt choppy. There is a cheap trick toward the end that doesn't smooth or clarify things, and I was not satisfied by the ending.

This is a debut novel and it shows. It could have used another round with a set of beta readers and some additional editing. I hope Robin Peguero keeps writing and nails the courtroom drama with his next book.

I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley.

The courtroom drama was fascinating. I loved seeing Sandy and Jordan butt heads, and I especially love Sandy's strategic choice of the soft-spoken, rumpled Nate as her second chair. I would totally read a sequel starring Nate on a case. Peguero's background as a prosecutor is evident, with the various legal details dropped in, and the way the reasoning behind the judge's decisions are outlined.

However, i found the story much weaker outside the courtroom. The detours into the juries' stories was confusing and often felt unnecessary. Peguero sometimes slips into a somewhat florid narration in these scenes, and with so many side characters who matter only for a chapter or two, it takes a while to figure out what's going on and how it relates to the story. Worse, Peguero begins these chapters with the side character's real name, and their lives outside the trial, only revealing them to be juror number one or whatnot after the detour into their past is over, which often leaves me wondering for most of the chapter why on earth I should care about this random person. These bits of their past are interesting insofar as they show their biases, but a late reveal in the novel makes so much of this part of it moot for the purposes of the main plot. Peguero also switches between the juror's name and their number throughout the chapters, which just adds to the confusion.

The side stories about the lawyers and the judges are also underdeveloped. Sandy's relationship with a reporter is interesting, but then it's mostly shunted aside for the trial. Jordan's depiction as a vain pretty-boy with a gorgeous wife holds promise, but we never (or maybe only briefly?) meet this wife or his family. And the second chairs -- Nate, whom I found most fascinating as the quiet man who's often underestimated, and Jordan's second chair, a woman fresh out of law school who makes an intriguingly rookie mistake while examining a witness-- aren't even given back stories at all. The detective, Sterling, probably gets the most nuanced back story, if only because his biases are a bit harder to tease out, and when revealed, turn out to have complex reasons behind them. But in the mass of mini-glimpses into many characters' lives, Sterling's back story feels frustratingly underdeveloped.

Still, the courtroom drama kept me hooked, and I was ready to call this a fun, if a bit scattered at times, book. But I absolutely hated the ending, and the major reveal at around the 75% mark that led up to it. I'll allow that the ending is (unfortunately) realistic, witnesses and evidence being as they are. I'll also allow that Peguero set up the twist solidly -- looking back, there's no reason why things couldn't have unfolded in that way, and Peguero used quite a few clever techniques to keep it under wraps. But as someone who was super invested in the trial and its outcome, I hated it. I didn't get that thrill of "OMG I didn't see that coming!" Rather, I felt cheated, and wish that things had turned out differently.

+

Thanks to the publisher for an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I struggled with both the writing style and subject matter of this legal thriller. With Prejudice is about the trial for the alleged abduction, rape and murder of a beautiful woman by a weird loner who the defense lawyer alleges couldn't have done it because he's gay and has no interest in women. That's the legal strategy. As with Robyn Gigl's By Way of Sorrow, I think you need a very nuanced and sophisticated handling of the genre and subject to make this work, and unlike Gigl who's solid, debut author Robin Peguero doesn't quite have it. At least not in this first attempt at fiction.

The characters are broadly written representatives (sometimes caricatures) of particular social identities and political positions. The author, an Afro-Latino former Hill staffer and criminal prosecutor in Miami, mixes it up-- the public defender is a sexist republican frat guy and the prosecutor a rabidly ambitious feminist who overestimates her own racial progressivism -- but he leans on the broad outlines of their identity and politics in a way that undermines the storytelling. Each encounter seems to represent a bigger social phenomenon or pattern. It's obvious and not half as insightful as the author seems to think.

On a minor note, I found the writing slightly awkward:

With Prejudice
by Robin Peguero
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Grand Central
Thanks to the author, publishers, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. With striking originality and expert storytelling, Robin Peguero’s debut novel explores the prejudice that hangs over every trial in America.
Throughout this legal thriller, we will get snippets of the events which touched the lives of the jurors we meet, causing them to bring to the deliberations, certain biases and beliefs, which may shape the verdict.
I liked this book but will not be recommending it.
3 stars

The story begins with the trial of a man accused of raping and murdering a young woman he met at a bar. As the trial progresses, we find ourselves peeking back into the investigation. We also find ourselves looking into the lives of the jurors and the prosecutor. The twisty plot turns kept me guessing until the very end.

With Prejudice is not your run-of-the-mill courtroom thriller. It’s deeply unsettling and dark in the most gripping fashion with twists that take your breath away.

Robin Peguero brings us a trial like no other. A young girl is brutally murdered and a suspect is in custody. The majority of the conflict takes place in the courtroom as shrewd lawyers attack each other’s arguments with fervent dialogues and tightly wound nerves. Every single moment is filled with tense energy coiling up by each subsequent page. The flawed and twisted characters add to the vicious unpredictability of the narrative. It’s not a straightforward matter of good vs evil, but a very realistic yarn with gray moral areas that speak to us unabashed and unfiltered. The narrative wonderfully explores the conflicts and predicaments jurors, judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys face when it comes to deciding the fate of the defendant, giving us an insightful peek at the American justice system with all its pros and cons in the modern age of racial bias and discrimination. Ultimately, the story leaves us with an important question to ponder: How far does ambition for victory go before it poisons the pursuit for justice?

With Prejudice is one of the wittiest thrillers in the recent years, peeling layers and layers of human psyche with the goal of presenting a fully fleshed out written narrative that feels authentic and timely. A quick word of caution, the ending is not one you expect from a traditional story. This will haunt you for days to come as you try to wrap your mind around the unexpected turn of events in the final act of the story. I loved it all the more for ending on a high note of breaking away from tradition; I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if this was based on a real case.

Full review will be posted with blurb image on https://www.bestthrillerbooks.com

It's been way too long since I've read a great courtroom drama. I enjoyed this novel because it delves into the perspectives of all the players, whether it be prosecution, defense, the judge, or the jurors.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Grand Central Publishing for the review copy.

This is an excellent legal thriller. The characters are well-developed and the story is fast-paced, keeps you on your toes. It was interesting to see both sides of the trial, both prosection and defense, as well as a peak at the judge's perspective.

Hope to see the sequel very soon.

Highly recommended. 4.5*

I must respectfully disagree with the other two reviews so far posted here. I consider myself a reasonably sophisticated reader and shifts in POV don't trouble me. That said, I found the prose clunky and awkward, and the narrative both so uninvolving and downright sometimes confusing that it wasn't worth fighting the turgid writing to puzzle my way through it.

Full disclosure. At about the halfway mark, I decided I simply didn’t care enough about either the characters or the plot to read any further. The world is filled with novels I enjoy spending time with. This was not one of them.

A strikingly original legal thriller that deftly handles multiple POVs. A recommended purchase for collection where crime fic is popular.

I’m not sure I’ll read a better book the rest of this year. I loved the multiple points of view. The way Robin Peguero manages to bring you inside the mind of every player in this courtroom drama is brilliant. He expertly highlights past experiences and bias and then allows you to draw your own conclusions.
This was a great reading experience and an even better reminder that what makes us different should be embraced and that we become a stronger society with every different point of view we are willing to see through.