Title: Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Author: Gary Bell QC

Genre: Legal Thriller

Publisher: Raven Books

Publication date: 13 June 2019

Source: Review copy

My rating: 5/5

Blurb (as on Goodreads):

The start of a fantastic new legal series, perfect for fans of Robert Galbraith, written by an acclaimed QC Elliot Rook is the epitome of a highly successful, old-Etonian QC. Or so everyone believes. In fact, he is an ex-petty criminal with a past that he has spent decades keeping secret. Until now… An unidentified young woman of Middle Eastern origin has been found murdered on the outskirts of Rook’s home town. Billy Barber – a violent football hooligan and white-supremacist – is accused of her murder. Barber insists that Rook must defend him. If Rook refuses, Barber will expose him, bringing crashing to the ground the life and career that Rook has spent his life building. The truth is there for the finding. But at what cost?

My Take:

Beyond Reasonable Doubt is undoubtedly a phenomenal work of Gary Bell which falls under the category of a legal thriller. This is the first book in the Eliot Rook series which has also been optioned for a TV series. Coming to the plot, a sixteen-year-old anonymous girl of Middle Eastern origin was brutally murdered and dumped in an abandoned railway track in the town of Cotgrave in Nottinghamshire. Billy Barber, a racist who has been previously charged with so many criminal cases, was charged for this murder. But Billy coerces Eliot Rook, a barrister to defend him by threatening to expose his past. The past, that would shatter Rook’s career which he, has spent his life building.

This book was divided into four parts. The first two parts were the groundwork of Rook and Zara Barnes. I loved the duo untying the knots in the murder mystery and the life-threatening moments that Rook had encountered in the process of unearthing the truth as Billy refused to say his whereabouts at the time of the murder. The third was the most anticipated and the nail-biting part of the book which has the courtroom scene. I thought everything was over after the verdict but then comes the fourth and the final part with a totally unpredictable twist that I didn’t see coming and a climax that will leave you flabbergasted.

Bell’s personal as well as his professional experience worked as a perfect background for this story. Though this is a legal thriller, the author had given a detective touch to it. The mining life and how the end of a coal mine had greatly affected the life of the people in Cotgrave leaving in poverty and unemployment was well projected. Beyond Reasonable Doubt is a brilliant start of a new legal series. With a completely engrossing narrative, this book had kept me hooked until the very end. I’m already looking forward to the second book in the series. This book is a true page-turner and a treat to all thriller fans. I highly recommend it to everyone.

I’m grateful to Bloomsbury India for providing me with the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

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