My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Racism and its painful face is never far from anyone’s mind, the case of George Floyd that rocked the world a case in point. The Holdout by Graham Moore gives the reader a glimpse of this ugly issue using the legal system as the base. It shows how each and every one of us can be manipulated into thinking something but then be convinced of an entirely different thing. The whole process of convicting or acquitting a person using data provided by both sides of law can lead to such unforeseen circumstances.

1 black man accused of killing a 15 yr. old white girl
A grieving father
12 jurors whose lives go for a toss.

A very taut and tensely written thriller with multiple POV’s, The Holdout was immensely enjoyable. 10 yrs. before, Maya Seale is on the jury of a case that has created waves, Bobby Nock a music teacher is accused of killing his student Jessica Silver, daughter of millionaire Lou Silver. A decade later, Maya is herself a lawyer knowing the ins and outs of law but the journey has not been easy as she along with her fellow jurors were pounded to hell for having turned in a not guilty verdict. The twists and turns of the story as it takes us thru each and every juror’s views and the sorry plight of Bobby Nock was undeniably one of the best I have read in recent times.

Brilliant and highly recommended.



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From the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and bestselling author of The Last Days of Night : a jury on a murder trial is deadlocked when a young woman manages to turn the tide to acquit; now, a decade later, she must face the consequences when a fellow juror is killed and she is the prime suspect.

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. Her teacher Bobby Nock is the prime suspect after illicit text messages are discovered between them–and Jessica’s blood is found in his car. 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 of their lives forever.

Flash forward ten years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jurors, 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 weaves together 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.