Author: Laurie Blake
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: November 3, 2026
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
I went into this one expecting a tight, claustrophobic thriller in the vein of Twelve Angry Men, and in some ways that's exactly what I got—just with a lot more moving parts than I bargained for.
Hollywood's biggest star, Danny Scott, stands trial for the attempted murder of his wife, starlet Hope Harrison, and the twelve sequestered jurors deciding his fate turn out to be hiding as many secrets as the defendant. The premise promises that everyone is guilty of something, and the book delivers on that front—maybe too well.
My biggest issue was sheer volume of characters. And
I never fully bought the central conceit that several jurors could engineer their way onto this specific panel—it's a big ask of the reader's suspense of disbelief, and the book doesn't earn it. The deliberation scenes, which should have been the tense heart of the novel, ended up feeling off, and the verdict landed strangely rather than satisfyingly.
I never fully bought the central conceit that several jurors could engineer their way onto this specific panel—it's a big ask of the reader's suspense of disbelief, and the book doesn't earn it. The deliberation scenes, which should have been the tense heart of the novel, ended up feeling off, and the verdict landed strangely rather than satisfyingly.
The book was engaging, but I just wish I'd had someone to root for. Neither Danny nor Hope earned my sympathy, and with a cast where everyone's guilty of something, there's no one left to anchor the story emotionally. It's a twisty, ambitious locked-room thriller that ultimately buckles a little under its own scope. Interesting, but not quite believable.
A big thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #SourcebooksLandmark
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