The Jury Master (David Sloane #1) by Robert Dugoni #bookreview #thriller

In a courtroom, David Sloane can grab a jury and make it dance. He can read jurors’ expressions, feel their emotions, know their thoughts. With this remarkable ability, Sloane gets juries to believe the unbelievable, excuse the inexcusable, and return the most astonishing verdicts.

The only barrier to Sloane’s professional success is his conscience — until he gets a call from a man later found dead, and his life rockets out of control. 

If you’re a regular at my blog, a book review of a legal thriller probably isn’t what you expected to find.  This was a book club read.

I was a John Grisham fan years ago, so I’ve read my share of legal thrillers.  The Jury Master is billed as a legal thriller – and with that title, it’s exactly what you’d expect.  But make no mistake – it’s a thriller, but falls squarely in the political arena.  The MC is in a courtroom for roughly ten pages, if that much.  I listened to the audio book, so it was difficult to tell.

David Sloane is an easy character to like.  After losing his parents at an early age, he grows up in foster homes, enlists in the military, and then puts himself through law school.  He also possesses a genius level IQ, takes in a stray cat, and returns an elderly tenant’s rent at the end of every year in the guise of a stock dividend.  A super nice guy.

This book held my interest, but be warned – with an extensive character list, it’s easy to get confused.  At 496 pages, it’s also a very long read, and the plot could easily have been tightened in some places.  I noticed the next book in this series totals around 380 pages – a more reasonable length.

My book club was split as far as continuing with the series, but it spawned some interesting discussions.  Overall, a nice selection.

14 thoughts on “The Jury Master (David Sloane #1) by Robert Dugoni #bookreview #thriller

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