TH1R3EEN

SUMMARY

Thirteen is a psychological thriller written by Steve Cavanagh. It is the fourth book of Steve’s on the character Eddie Flynn, Former-conman-turned-criminal-defense-attorney.

The book starts with Joshua Kane, our “real” murderer, panhandling for spare change outside the Criminal Courts Building in Manhattan, New York. His mind is on death, and he fantasizes of killing those passers-by who ignores his plea for a spare. Yet he seems harmless enough. But soon we get to see another side of Kane, with a mailman dead and his cargo of mailbags, originally from the court, tampered. It’s the first step of a plan that Kane has been devising for quite some time now.

On and on, we meet Eddie Flynn after six weeks, plying his trade in a case involving an ex hooker caught in possession of drugs. He manages to let the case go free, but then someone else notices him, none other than Rudy Carp, the very popular and big-shot lawyer who is about to take on the biggest trial of the year, the murder of Ariella Bloom, wife of the very famous movie star, Robert Solomon, and their chief of security, Carl Tozer.

The prosecution is convinced they have a strong case – but Carp says Robert is innocent and the police set him up. Most important of all, he wants Eddie to join the defense team. Eddie is torn, yet he couldn’t deny the fact that if he could get a place in the well-established firm, there will be lesser problems in his life, for the time being. As time goes by, Eddie gets surer and surer that Robert is actually innocent, but who could be behind the murders? The contents of those mailbags mentioned earlier are delivered far and wide, and Joshua Kane’s quest becomes clearer. One bag contained jury summonses for the Solomon trial, and anyhow, Kane is determined to be one of the chosen 12 jury members.

Will Eddie be able to catch the killer before everything is too late? Will he be able to declare Robert innocent? And how does Kane get a place in the jury? And will he be able to keep himself hidden from the prying eyes of Carp and Flynn?

REVIEW

Thirteen is a gripping novel which makes us anticipate for the next moment. Its incredulous plotlines, climaxes, everything is too good. Cavanagh’s imagination must have done somersaults to come up with some of the jaw-droppingly immoral, though entirely reasonable, things that happen in the course of this excellent novel. 

This book is one of my favorites because of its plotlines, exciting moments, courtroom battles, the tension between everyone and many more. I would highly recommend this book to everyone who haven’t read this yet, and just everyone, especially psychological thriller lovers.