Thirteen - Steve Cavanagh

Reading Challenge Category: A reread of a book in a series

Official Blurb:

'To your knowledge, is there anything that would preclude you from serving on this jury?'
Murder wasn't the hard part. It was just the start of the game.
Joshua Kane has been preparing for this moment his whole life. He's done it before. But this is the big one.
This is the murder trial of the century. And Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house.
But there's someone on his tail. Someone who suspects that the killer isn't the man on trial.
Kane knows time is running out - he just needs to get to the conviction without being discovered.

My Thoughts:

This is the first book I read in this series back in 2019, and I loved it so much I have been finding time to go back and read the series from the beginning. I decided I needed to revisit this book again while I was doing the whole series, and I’m so glad I did.
The first three books have been good, but I’m glad this was the first I read, as it is by far the best (so far). The author certainly upped his game for this book.
It was really different from the first three, whereby Eddie’s personal life wasn’t encroaching into the trial. Yes, he has some tribulations to overcome, but it is about the crime and the defence.
The other differentiating factor is that we have a different voice telling their part of the story, the bad guy’s. I really liked his sections as he was utterly ruthless and had no morals and no line he wasn’t prepared to cross.
I gave this five stars the first time I read it, and I wholeheartedly stand behind that rating this time around. I disagree with my closing comment of my original review (found below), however; I didn’t have a problem with the ending and felt it had a natural flow to it.

Original Review August 2019:

This book gripped me completely; it was so well-written and suspenseful.
We meet the killer Kane straight away, but we aren’t aware of what his plans or goals are. It is clear he has them as he is putting a lot of effort into whatever he’s doing. We have no idea what is going on, but we know that Kane is a complete sociopath.
The chapters interchange between Kane and a lawyer Eddie Flynn. At first, I wasn’t sure who’s chapter it was, but the lawyer is written in the first person, but Kane’s sections are narrated in the third person. We still know what he is thinking and feeling, but we are a little more removed from him than we are with Flynn. So once you understand the rhythm of the book, you know who’s section you are reading.
As Flynn starts to uncover why the killer is doing what he is doing, we are also watching Kane’s plan unfold. Mini cliff hangers are happening throughout, but if Kane leaves you wondering what is going on, Flynn discovers it in the next chapter. It’s a lovely trail of bread combs being left by both characters.
It was very cleverly written.
I was a little disappointed with the ending; it felt a little bit too neat and tidy. I would have rather have had a more gritty finish. However, this did not distract from it being, overall, a fantastic book. I am certainly going to be back-reading the first three books of the Eddie Flynn series. Even though this is book four, you don’t really feel as if you have missed out any vital information. It can be read as a standalone without even realising it is part of a series.