Dissection of a Murder

 

She's defending the case. He's prosecuting it. They're married.

It's her first murder trial. The prosecutor sitting across the courtroom is her husband, the man who trained her to do this job. Yeah. I was in.

Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray follows Leila Reynolds, a barrister handed a case way above her experience level: defending a former client accused of killing a well respected judge. The catch is everywhere. The client wants her and only her, and he won't talk. Her husband Julian is the lead prosecutor, posh and seasoned and exactly the opponent you don't want in your first big trial. And the tension doesn't stay in the courtroom. It follows them home.

Jo Murray is a former barrister and it shows. The legal details feel real without ever getting bogged down in procedure. The pace never sags, which is genuinely hard to pull off in a legal thriller. There's an unreliable narrator (you know how I feel about those 👏) plus a mysterious Witness X whose chapters run alongside Leila's with an agenda all their own. I blew through it.

The narrator is Joanne Froggatt, who you'll know from Downton Abbey, and she is phenomenal. She takes a sharp story and sharpens it further. Leila's composure, the parts she's hiding, and the control underneath all of it, comes alive in how Froggatt reads her. This was a binge, mostly because the plot and that voice were such a good pairing.

I won't say a word about the ending except that it landed for me. Some readers might not like on it, and that's fair. Go in knowing as little as possible and let it work on you.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Perfect for legal thriller fans, domestic suspense readers, and anyone who loves a courtroom story with real bite. Out now.

If you liked this review, you might be interested in Fifty Fifty, a high stakes legal thriller by Steve Cavanagh.

About the Author

Jo Murray grew up in Teesside, England, during the ’90s, when working-class girls were told they probably shouldn’t try to become barristers. Thankfully, she ignored everyone. After studying Classics at Newcastle University, she went to law school and was a criminal barrister before leaving the profession to look after her two children. She lives in North Yorkshire.

Follow Jo on Instagram for news and information about her book.