"Yowza." Such is the reaction thriller writers probably hope readers will have when finishing their books. It's not easy to keep seasoned crime-fiction fans in the dark. Jo Murray, though? She succeeds in eliciting such a gasp with her cleverly twisty debut, Dissection of a Murder.
Leila Reynolds, a junior barrister in Durham, England, gets her first murder case when a respected judge is killed. The defendant is Jack Millman, a client whom Leila unsuccessfully represented years earlier in an assault case, resulting in him going to prison. Why he insists she be his barrister again is a mystery, as is what happened the night the judge died. The scene of the crime is Jack's flat, but he refuses to explain, saying he'll only tell the truth in the witness box during trial. As if Leila's job isn't hard enough, the case's prosecutor is King's Counsel Julian Kesler, Leila's husband and former mentor, who knows all her strategies because he taught them to her. It becomes clear to Leila that she can win the case or keep her marriage, but she can't do both.
It's also clear that Murray, a former criminal barrister, knows exactly what she's doing in this addictive legal thriller. Like Jack, she reveals information only when necessary, doling out details that land like explosions. No wonder Apple TV+ has snapped up Dissection of a Murder to be the basis for season 2 of its hit show Presumed Innocent. With this many twists, readers should presume nothing. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, reviewer and freelance editor at The Edit Ninja