I was lucky enough to be granted an advance review copy of Rob Rinder’s debut novel ‘The Trial‘ a couple of years ago – and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was then given an advance review copy of his book coming out later this year, The Protest, at which point I realised I’d missed book two. As it’s a series, and I loved Adam Green in the first book, I parted with hard cash for the middle book, and second in the series, The Suspect. Here’s the blurb:

“When the UK’s favourite breakfast TV presenter dies live on air in front of millions of viewers, the nation is left devastated.
More devastated still when it becomes clear that her death was not an accident.
The evidence points to one culprit: celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks. But junior barrister Adam Green is about to discover that the case is not as open-and-shut as it first seemed.
And although her angelic persona would suggest otherwise, she was not short of enemies in the glittery TV world . . .
Can Adam uncover the truth?”

In my review of The Trial, I commented that Rob Rinder had ‘written what he knows’ by making Adam a Jewish trainee barrister – well, Rob has now combined his second career with his first – to double down on this – with daytime TV now featuring too! Whilst this would probably stand alone as a ‘whodunnit’ – I think it really helps to have read the first book in the series to have the background on lots of the characters.

The book really does seem like it’s an open and shut case – as the death of a TV presenter is witnessed on live TV – but you think that really it can’t be – as that would be a pretty dull book! This case is the main element – with other cases, and the lives of Adam and his chamber-mates intertwined, along with the phonecalls Adam has with his Mum (which were a favourite part of the first book too!)

Lots of the characters are ‘familiar’ from TV personalities we know and love – but tropes are tropes for a reason I guess! I enjoyed this element of it as it made it feel more real.

It was another twisty and turny storyline, with the intricacies of the UK legal system woven through, which you know are going to be legitimate because of Rob’s background. Overall I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the third instalment of Adam Green’s career later this summer.