The Holdout: A Novel
Feb 2020 · Sold by Random House
3.0star
5 reviews
Ebook
336
Pages
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About this ebook
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 Window
It’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.
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 Window
It’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.
Ratings and reviews
3.0
5 reviews
Jennifer Oakley
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February 18, 2020
Ten years ago, Maya Seale was the lone holdout who refused to convict Bobby Nock of murdering Jessica Silver. One by one, she convinced the others jurors to eventually acquit him of a crime that most of the country was convinced he was guilty of. Now, after years of harassment for the unpopular verdict, the jurors are reunited for a TV show about the trial. When one of the jurors, Rick Leonard, is killed in Maya's hotel room, Maya is faced with having to prove her innocence. On the surface, this book explores two murders: the murder of Bobby Nock and the murder of Rick Leonard. But most of all, it is a fascinating - and sometimes disturbing - look at our justice system: the advice that Maya's lawyer gives her, the dynamics of the interactions between the jurors, the psychology behind each juror's vote. And this is where this book really shines. There is a repeated theme that the truth is not what's really important in a murder trial. It will really make you think. Does anyone involved in a case like this - the cops, the lawyers, the jurors, the press - really care about the truth? Or do we just want someone to blame? There are also a couple of mysteries to solve, which mostly involves Maya running around and talking to people about Rick's murder. And while necessary to the plot and moving the forward story, these sections weren't nearly as powerful or thought-provoking as the ones that gave you glimpses of our justice system. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are my own.
Paul Demetre
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April 5, 2020
The writing and mystery were both ok but the novel had some glaring problems with basic procedures when it comes to the law/police procedures. And worst of all, the is no way an adult human head will for in the glovebox of a Hyundai Elantra.
Steve Conhain
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February 18, 2020
Where is it? Pre-order states 2/17.
About the author
Graham Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Days of Night and The Sherlockian, and the Academy Award–winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game, which also won a Writers Guild of America Award for best adapted screenplay and was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. Moore was born in Chicago, received a BA in religious history from Columbia University in 2003, and now lives in Los Angeles.
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