Rob Rinder

Book Review: The Protest by Rob Rinder

Posted on by Libby Price

When I saw Net Galley had the latest Rob Rinder book in the Adam Green series, I was delighted to be granted an advance review copy. I then realised I’d missed the second book in the series, The Suspect, so had to read that first! Here’s the blurb for book three:

“A world-famous artist. A fatal brush with death.
At a star-studded opening night for the Royal Academy’s celebration of renowned artist Max Bruce, someone is hiding a dark secret.
As the night reaches its climax and Max addresses his admirers, the occasion takes a shocking turn when a protester runs from the crowd and sprays the artist with blue paint.
Max collapses and it soon turns out that the paint was laced with cyanide. Someone has been plotting to kill him.
All evidence points to the protestor – and newly qualified barrister Adam Green is assigned the impossible task of their defence.
But could there be others who wanted Max dead?”

The book starts exactly as per the blurb – and again Rob has characters which you immediately recognise from popular culture (a nepo-son with a hot sauce brand remind you of anyone?!) The book also follows the skeleton of the previous books with Adam working on a high profile case, interweaved with another case – and I quite enjoyed the light and shade, or shade and shadier, that this brought to the book.

I felt that this time Adam’s Mum didn’t feature quite as much – which was a shame, as I love her!! But she’s always there in the back ground – and her phonecalls are classic.

This book would stand alone – but knowing the back story of all of the characters definitely adds to it – and it’s interesting to see how they all develop. It also emphasises just how overworked young barristers are.

There are lots of twists and turns in the book as the story progresses – some of which I have to confess guessing in advance (but that does make me feel smug and clever, so isn’t necessarily a bad thing!)

My one niggle is there were quite a few grammatical errors and odd inconsistencies – for example Adam quotes a text from his Mum and says why would she use 1 emoji when she could use 3 or 4 – but in the text he quoted, she’d only used 2! I suspect that this may be because I read an early proof copy – and some anal editor (my dream job!) will have picked these up before the book is actually published! And it didn’t detract from a great book.

The Protest was out a few days ago, so if you like the sound of it – or would like to reconnect with Adam Green from the previous books – then you can buy it right now!

Many thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for my advance review copy.

Book Review: The Suspect by Rob Rinder

Posted on by Libby Price

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.

Book Review: The Trial by Rob Rinder

Posted on by Libby Price

When NetGalley offered me an ARC of Rob (Judge) Rinder’s debut novel, I jumped at the chance! Whilst I’d been aware of Judge Rinder on TV, I’d never watched an episode of his eponymous show (despite knowing someone who appeared in one #randomfact) – but really liked him on Strictly. I’ve also enjoyed his partnership with Susanna Reid as a guest presenter on Good Morning Britain (more of Susanna shortly!) and his eloquent campaigning on Twitter – so I had high expectations of the book.

For anyone not just tempted by the author – here’s the blurb:

“An unputdownable murder mystery by Britain’s best-loved criminal barrister Rob Rinder.
ONE MURDER. ONE IMPOSSIBLE CASE. WHO IS GUILTY?
When hero policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning in the Old Bailey, it threatens to shake the country to its core.
The evidence points to one man. Jimmy Knight has been convicted of multiple offences before and defending him will be no easy task. Not least because this is trainee barrister Adam Green’s first case.
But it will quickly become clear that Jimmy Knight is not the only person in Cliveden’s past with an axe to grind.
The only thing that’s certain is that this is a trial which will push Adam – and the justice system itself – to the limit . . .”

The book is told from Adam Green’s point of view – he’s a Jewish trainee barrister – so the author is sticking with what he knows. Adam is a pupil at a London chambers – and is in competition with another pupil to be taken on as a permanent barrister – so there is a lot at stake with each case over and above how the client gets on.

The setting reminded me a lot of the BBC TV drama ‘Silks’ – and this is not a bad thing, as I loved the programme and was gutted when it was cancelled a decade ago. (Admittedly my love was potentially heightened because Rupert Penry-Jones is on my laminated list!) I’m guessing as both the TV series and this book are written by people with experience of the legal profession, every chambers has an aggressive Head Clerk who basically rules the roost, competitive pupils (with a love / hate relationship), slightly lazy but well connected senior barristers – and lots of ‘marketing’ (excessive drinking and copping off out of hours!)

Having had mostly dull boring straightforward cases – suddenly Adam finds himself in the midst of a murder trial and a financial fraud trial. Both of these are working for his pupil master Jonathan who is not a nice man! He might be a KC (I’m guessing there was a quick ‘find and replace’ QC with KC during the drafting process!) but he is lazy, rude, misogynistic, having multiple affairs and just a total slimeball. He also doesn’t seem bothered with elements of the case against their client, Jimmy Knight, who has been charged with the murder of a high flying policeman – Grant Cliveden.

Adam then does some digging of his own accord – and in his own limited time – into PC Cliveden and Jimmy Knight. The book therefore has a dual pronged story of the legal case itself – and Adam trying to prove what really happened. At the same time the chapters are interspersed with phonecalls between Adam and his mother. She’s busy letting herself into his flat to clean and provide homecooked food – and ‘suggest’ nice Jewish girls for him to marry! I really enjoyed this insight into Adam’s family, and the history between him and his parents is revealed as the book progresses.

It’s very clever and intricate (and I didn’t spot any inconsistencies, and I’m super anal about such stuff!) and has lots of references to current life – I particularly liked the reference to Susannah Reid being attractive, when I know she’s Rob’s Ibiza holidaying and celebrity Gogglebox partner!!

Overall it’s a great combination of legal drama / murder mystery / domestic story – all wrapped up together – and you were rooting for Adam throughout. A fantastic debut novel, and I’d really like to revisit Adam Green in books to come!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Judge Rob Rinder himself for this excellent book. It’s out in June 2023 and I would highly suggest you pre order it now.