Good, good,’ said Jonathan. ‘Did you add the bit about how I miss her milky thighs, or did we decide that was a bit much?’ Adam has personal reasons for trying to clear Jimmy’s name despite his guilt seeming to be obvious and he works hard to find out the truth of the case before trial. He learns that the deceased was not quite as saintly as he first appeared. This was definitely a five star read for me, I just couldn’t put it down and that’s always a good sign! Proud of his roots in the Jamaican community of working-class Birmingham, Bobby had come to the Bar when racism was casually deployed and widely accepted within the profession. Against the odds, he was now one of its leading lights, and it had been Bobby’s incredibly inspiring speech delivered at Adam’s school as part of an outreach scheme that had brought him here, to Stag Court. Adam had known, ever since what had happened to his dad all those years ago – but now wasn’t the time to think about all that – that he’d wanted to do something that would make the world a fairer place. But it wasn’t until Bobby and his talk on the urgency of creating a justice system that reflected the dignity of those who used it that a career in the law had seemed a realistic possibility. Hundreds of hours of study later, a ham-fisted attempt to make himself a whole new person, and a determined vow to keep the past in a box where it belonged, here he was, a pupil in Bobby’s chambers. Surely now was the time to try some ‘networking’ that might actually matter? Er, yes, sorry about that,’ said Adam, raising his voice in an effort to drown out the escalating grunts and moans coming from the other side of the door. ‘I was at Bexley Mags.’

This is a book that takes you to the dark heart of the criminal justice system. They are all here - the good, the bad, the innocent and the guilty. I have not enjoyed a legal thriller this much since Grisham's The Firm' Tony Parsons So,’ said Jonathan, arranging a crocodile smile on his boyish features. He was in his fifties but still retained his roguish good looks, notwithstanding the little paunch he’d developed in his middle age. ‘How did we get on today?’Today he was due in court as the key police witness in another high-profile case – this one involving a nasty gang of teenage thugs. Thanks to the weapons and drugs he’d personally discovered during searches of the little shits’ residences, he knew they had them bang to rights. The trial still had some way to go, but DI Cliveden was already mentally chalking it up as another win – well, four really, if you counted each of the defendants separately. That meant his personal tally for the calendar year had already hit fifty. He felt a shiver of pride – ever since he’d hit the headlines again last year, after recovering London’s biggest ever haul of cocaine, he knew the public’s eyes were on him. And he wasn’t about to let them down.

Well, I’d advise him to get someone other than me to apply for his bail,’ said Adam, chinking his bottle with Rupert’s. ‘I’ve had another stinker today.’ This was a first. The pupil master had generally shown next to zero interest in Adam’s progress in his ‘second six’, the period of six months during which a pupil was allowed to represent their own clients in court, rather than simply doing the pupil master’s donkey work. A ridiculously entertaining whodunit. The Trial is sharp, witty and has a huge amount of heart. You're all going to love it when it hits shelves in June." - Tom Hindle Rinder was 21 when he came out, “but I was meandering out at university. It wasn’t so much that I was worried about being gay, as much as doing something that would make my mum fearful for me. When I realised I was gay, HIV/Aids was a death sentence, a looming shadow. It was the time of section 28, where this was something dirty and furtive.” Also, he says: “There were so many complexities about disappointing my mum. We were the first divorced family [in her family], there was pressure on her as a single mum. At that time, being gay was cloaked in shame, and I was probably conscious about wanting to make sure my mum wouldn’t experience that.” He had also wanted to marry and have children. “That wasn’t part of the narrative for gay men then.” Accepting his sexuality “required a conscious loss”.Godspeed,’ said Rupert wryly, clapping Adam on the shoulder. Adam approached his bouffant- haired pupil master with some trepidation, wondering if he, like Tony, was about to admonish him for today’s showing in court.

You must be mistaking me for someone who cares,’ said Tony menacingly, one eyebrow raised. ‘You’ll have my full attention when – one – it pays, and – two – you’ve won. Now get out there and get schmoozing!’ The Trial is whip-smart, stylish and gripping, both murder mystery and courtroom drama, shot through with tension, humour and a dark dissection of corruption, status and justice' Gilly Macmillan

Fiction

Rinder grew up in the north London suburb of Southgate, where his father was a taxi driver and his mother started her own publishing business from her bedroom. He went to grammar school, then the University of Manchester, but at the time he was called to the bar, in 2001, more than 80% of barristers had been to Oxbridge. Did he feel out of place? “There are two answers to that – yes and no, which is not very helpful,” he says. “The ‘no’ is, I think, being gay and growing up in a working-class community, you intuitively understand you’re outside, from the moment of consciousness of being gay, or even being culturally curious.” There was an idea that certain things – books, music – were for other people. “‘This is for the Hampstead Jews, not the Southgate ones.’ So there was a sense, from a young age, of wanting to reclaim my own thing. I remember, in the silliest way, feeling a different sort of impostor syndrome.” Adam felt his shoulders relax as he followed his friend into the main lobby. Easy-going and good-natured, Rupert had the ability to put anyone at ease. As Stag Court’s newest tenant, he’d become an invaluable source of guidance, particularly as he had been in Adam’s shoes a year ago. It was Rupert who’d warned Adam not to follow chambers’ official advice to ‘ask any question, no matter how silly it sounds’. Rupert’s sage riposte was: ‘Only do that, mate, if you don’t mind the KCs all saying, “He asked me a really stupid question six months ago,” and deciding not to give you tenancy because of it.’ Rupert got a vote on Adam’s tenancy too, but he just wasn’t the type to keep a running tally of follies and faux pas. As such, he was the only person Adam could speak (relatively) freely around without worrying that what he said might count against him. The women who wore tight fitting or "salacious" clothes were Raquel, Gloria and similar. The well to do, casually chic were given Charlotte, Georgina... An engrossing read by someone who clearly knows their subject matter well. I didn't see the ending coming!" - Faith Martin The Trial is in the best tradition of John Mortimer's Rumpole series. A hugely enjoyable British courtroom drama." - Steve Cavanagh

Overall, Rinder has written something which is going to be a huge crowd pleaser in the summer. The end leaves it open to the possibility of more Adam Green stories in the future which I certainly would not be opposed to! An addictive and twisty 5 stars.The press and public all seemed to agree on one thing: there was only one thing worse than the murder of a police officer, and that was the murder of a police officer who was also a minor celebrity. Maybe ‘celebrity’ was the wrong word; Cliveden hadn’t exactly courted the media’s attention – he’d turned down Strictly ‘at least four times’, according to this particular breathless Sun write-up. But he’d nevertheless found a place in the nation’s psyche, somewhere between national treasure and bastion of society. In an age of influencers and reality stars, Cliveden represented real heroism, duty and integrity; he had been, in short, everything the British thought their public servants should be. Adam had only been eleven when Cliveden had thrown himself between the Queen and that madman with a gun, but he still remembered how his own mother had wept at the grainy footage of the baby-faced officer prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. What can I say? I really loved this book and whizzed through it in a couple of days. Books by celebrities can be pretty hit and miss so although I like Rob Rinder’s Tv persona and humour I wasn’t sure if this would translate into his first novel. Well it definitely did!