Th1rt3en by Steve Cavanagh is a really good thriller with an amazing tag line, The Serial Killer is not on trial, he’s on the jury, that made me have to read it. This novel reminded me of the early James Patterson novels, when he was really good and wrote stuff by himself and did not have ghost writers. The novel has short chapters making it easy to digest and keep reading. The descriptions are just right enough to give you a mind picture. The twists and plot is very clever, there’s a couple twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, but was pleasantly surprised. This novel is the fourth in the series, but this is the first one that I have read, I would’ve preferred to read it in order, but I didn’t feel I missed much and was caught up in Eddie Flynn’s life very fast. A huge thanks for Netgalley and Flatiron books for letting me read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for my honest thoughts on it. This novel is released on August 13 of 2019.

The Plot: Kane is a serial killer that is good with costumes and mimicry, when he’s first introduced he’s a homeless man with an agenda, we’re not clear on what his total agenda is but we know he ‘s stalking a mailman who delivers and receives packages from the court house. Kane’s real agenda isn’t the mailman, but the package from the courthouse, mainly the jury summons for a very important case. The case is one that is making headlines, involving Robert Solomon a famous movie star that is tried for killing his newly bride and their bodyguard who where found murdered in bed with their clothes off. Robert Solomon claims innocence and that he was not there when the murders take place. Eddie Flynn is a con man turned lawyer, that still uses his con man skills to win cases, his recent case was exposing police negligence as it arrested a client without grounds, in this case he has started a war with the police. That last case is why he’s hired as a attorney assisting the big boy’s of Carp law and associates, to go after the cops for negligence when a piece of evidence , a dollar, is collected from the mouth of one of the victims, which Robert’s DNA and the DNA of a serial killer that was executed. Kane gets on the jury determined to make Robert guilty by any means necessary. With the deck stacked against Eddie Flynn can he give Robert a fair trail.

What I Liked: The plot is really focused, and there’s no parts that I found boring or dragged. The twist will have you on the edge of your seat, there’s more than a few that were really clever, and twist I did not see coming. The character’s were written really well, the serial killer if you give into the narrative established that he studies and mimics peoples action and voice works well and is established early. The courtroom procedure worked really well and held my attention. The narrative of flipping back and forth between Kane and Eddie really worked and gave new perspective to the scenes.

What I Disliked: The serial killer’s motive didn’t seem to work for me totally, the killing of people who’s life had wind falls worked better than the 13 colonies thing, that was never really explained well enough. There’s flashbacks but they don’t reveal this obsession which I felt was needed. The dirty cops I felt were a little to sloppy with there plan to be on the force as long they had.

Recommendations: Despite this novel’s few flaws I really enjoyed it and recommend reading it. I’m a fan of James Patterson’s early work with Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider, and I think this fits right in, In those novels you know who the killer is, The flow is really fast, and the Twist are really good and jaw dropping. I plan of going back and reading the other three novels of the Eddie Flynn character, I enjoyed it that much. I rated this novel 5 out of 5 stars, there’s minor flaws but this novel really worked for me and was a lot of fun.