Best known as The Secret Barrister – an author with several non-fiction books under their belt – the shadowy SJ Fleet has finally arrived on the crime fiction scene with their debut The Cut Throat Trial. It’s a compelling mix of Rumpole of the Bailey and John Grisham.
This is courtroom drama on steroids, with a no-holds-barred depiction of life behind the scenes of a headline-grabbing murder trial in the fictional Ableford Crown Court. Three teenage boys are in the dock, accused of the brutal murder of a retired teacher in his 70s, who was out shopping for champagne in the dying minutes of 2023. Each of them denies it, putting the blame on the other two – the ‘cut throat’ defence of the title.
The tale unfolds from many viewpoints, including two of the defendants, the prosecutor, one of the defending barristers and even the trial judge. No stone is left unturned in this pursuit of justice and it’s surprising what you find in those dark and dingy recesses.
But let’s make this plain from the outset: If you’re expecting the theatrics of, say, Mickey Haller or Eddie Flynn, then you are heading for disappointment. If there is any issue with The Cut Throat Trial, it’s that it is forensic in its detail, occasionally teetering on the edge of too much information.
Having got that out into the open, let’s concentrate upon the positives. The sorry tale opens with a transcript of phone messages between two of the defendants, as they discuss playing a game where they take it in turns to hit an innocent victim until they are dead. Damning stuff, and you can immediately see why prosecutor Aliyah Arshad is quietly confident that this one is a slam dunk for a guilty verdict.
She sets out her stall early doors, showing the jurors the murder weapon – a terrifying looking dagger known as a zombie knife, the word Slaughter written on its five-inch hilt, its serrated blade measuring 16 inches. It’s enough to put the fear of god into anyone on the wrong side of it. Yep, things are looking good for the prosecution case.
But as the narrative bounces hither and thither like a pinball, we readers begin to see a less clear picture of what happened that night. Fleet takes us inside the heads of defendants Craig Mervyn-Scott and Arron Freeman, places of darkness and deceit. Both have very different stories to tell, but can either of them be trusted to tell the truth? Defendant number three, Jamal Lowton, is something of an outlier with very little to say. Instead we learn some of his story through his barrister, Jennifer Rennie, but even she is struggling to engage with her client.
Whatever happens in the trial, presiding over it all is His Honour Judge Letts, whose jaundiced view of the proceedings and its players are both revealing and slightly horrifying. This is a man who wields the sword of justice like some medieval knight, cold and heartless and so convinced of his own invincibility that it is hard to warm to him.
The Cut Throat Trial is both an entertaining and frustrating read. The cut and thrust of the courtroom is smartly conveyed and its central characters are brought to life with aplomb and accuracy. It sets off at pace, dragging the reader along for the ride, keeps the momentum going through some harrowing forensic detail, but then pulls on the brakes as the trial is about to reach its conclusion, by being perhaps a little too true to life in the dull and overly detailed closing statements that I began to just skim past. Keep going though – because the tension doesn’t let up until the very end.
In every crime novel, there’s a sweet spot to be found between accuracy and dramatic licence. SJ Fleet’s debut comes close to hitting it, but doesn’t quite get there. Let’s see how they do with a second attempt – I for one can’t wait to read it!
Also see the legal thriller FDR Drive, written by James Comey, another author who knows the behind the scenes gossip.
Picador
Print/Kindle/iBook
£9.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
