I saw Th1rt3en mentioned somewhere on Instagram and the cover had me hooked. Primarily, the line “The serial killer isn’t on trial. He’s on the jury”. Damn. That’s an intriguing premise. 

 

Th1rt3en

by Steve Cavanagh

 

 

To me, Th1rt3en felt like a courtroom Bones episode. That’s the vibe I got while reading it. The book is written from the perspective of two different characters, so if that’s not your jam, go eat some vegemite (aka read a different book). I can sometimes find it jarring to swap back and forth, but it didn’t bother me much in this book.

 

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There are a lot of courtroom scenes in this book. I have seen the odd comment that a few things were unrealistic, but it’s fiction, people. That sort of thing doesn’t bother me. The story is good. If I wanted to be bogged down in bureaucracy and procedure, I would go read government policy. 

 

My only criticism of the book is that the ending wasn’t a climax to me. I guessed one twist and I just didn’t care about the other. For me, those factors didn’t detract from the book being good overall, but if you’re going into it expecting the twist to be THE part of the book for you – well, it wasn’t for me. Obviously it’s a bit hard (aka impossible) to elaborate on exactly why I didn’t care about one twist without completely giving it away.