Some of the other proceedings seem a little less convincing: the police case from the outset is flimsy and circumstantial and Detective Kurlen a bullying lazy stereotype - surely it would not have come to court so quickly. That central battle alone is worth the price of the book and keeps the reader gripped. The intricacies of courtroom debate and on the edge of the law chicanery are what Mr Connelly is best at, and both Haller and Freeman stretch legal etiquette and the patience of Judge Perry to the limit. It is the battle between Haller and Andrea Freeman in court which grabs the attention as each tries to get the advantage over the other in a duel which becomes almost personal and the guilt or innocence of the person on trial seems to matter less and less. Like the other reviewers so far I found myself sucked into the story, and finished it in a day. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice.

The fifth witness