Whitcoulls Recommends: The Cut Throat Trial and The Vanishing Place

The Cut Throat Trial by S.J Fleet. I assume that the author’s name is a pseudonym as they’ve published previous books under the moniker of The Secret Barrister – I believe they’re a practising lawyer who in those books delivered some witty and interesting commentary on the state of the UK justice system. This novel is set in a courtroom, where three teenagers are on trial for the murder of an elderly man. I didn’t know this until I read the book, but a cut throat trial is where there are more than one defendant and they each try to blame the others. The three boys each have their own lawyer, and there is of course a prosecutor, a jury and an arrogant and entitled judge so it’s a pretty full court. The story unfolds beautifully as the evidence is laid before the jury, but what might seem straightforward becomes less so, and after their verdict is delivered things are not necessarily what they seem. I really loved it. 

The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin. It’s set on the West Coast of the South Island, where a young girl walks out of the bush one day into a very small town where local people realise that they’ve seen her before – many years ago. She has the same face as another girl who lived there 20 years before and the local policeman makes the connection, works out who she is and then secrets start to unravel. I believe this is the first book by a local author and it’s twisty, thrilling and gripping. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Joining me now, Joe McKenzie, Good morning, Good morning. Right,
We're going to start with a book called The Cutthroat
Trial by s J. Fleet, and I'm assuming that this
is a pseudonym.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
I think it is most likely to be a pseudonym
because the author of this book, which is called The
Cutthroat Trial, has previously written books under the name of
the Secret Barrister. And my understanding is that that writer
is a practicing barrister in the UK who's written books
which are sometimes quite funny but also very biting and

(00:46):
critical of the state of justice in the UK. So
it stands to reason. It seems to me that if
they wrote those books under a pseudonym, then they're not
about to announce who they are when they write their
first novel. That makes sense. Yes, s J. Fleet has
written The Cutthroat Trial, and I've just got to tell
you I loved it. Now I learned something when I
read it. I didn't know what a cutthroat trial was,

(01:08):
but it's when you have apparently more than one defendant
in a court case and they all want to blame
each other for having committed the crime. So in this one,
it is a courtroom book. It is almost entirely set
in the courtroom, and it's told in the first person
voice of each of the characters as they narrate their

(01:28):
part of the story, and it works really, really well.
So you've got a very full courtroom because you have
three seventeen year old boys who have been accused of
the murder of an elderly guy, and each of them
has their own lawyer. Then you've got the prosecutor, who's
a woman who is a bit fearful for her future career,
but she clearly is doing quite well because there's the

(01:49):
odd lovely reference to things like when she picks up
her burken handbag, so you know that actually things are
okay for her. You've got her support person from the police,
who is the liaison between the court and the police,
is completely hapless and useless, so you've got some quite
dynamics going on. There's a judge who is immensely opinionated

(02:10):
and unpleasant, and then of course you've got the jury,
so it's a very full courtroom and as the evidence
is laid out written by somebody who really understands this stuff.
It beautifully unfolds as you imagine the various scenarios about
what might have happened to this poor man who was
murdered and the jury reached their conclusion, and then there
is some more stuff which happens which tells you that

(02:34):
all is not as it seemed. And it's really really good.
Have you read the previous works Embristeries. No, I haven't.
I've been aware of them for quite some time and
they've always been on my list, but I never quite
got to them.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
But it sounds like it's pretty obvious it's written by
someone who knows what they're talking about. Excellent, and you've
got what I think is a debut novel by a
Kiwi author.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yes correct.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Her name is Zoe Rankin and the book is called
The Vanishing Point. It was published very recently and it
is a mystery thriller which is mostly set on the
west coast of the South Island. When a young nine
year old girl staggers out of the South Island bush,
she's bleeding, she's traumatized. There are some dark themes in
this book that make it such a good thriller. But

(03:21):
for some people, I imagine it might be a little triggering,
but it is the story of this child who comes
out of the bush and is immediately recognized by the
locals as the face of someone who they saw there
twenty years ago, and so they start to try and
draw the connections between this young girl who's suddenly arrived

(03:42):
and the person who looked like her all that time ago.
And the local policeman gets involved and he realizes what's
going on and contacts a woman living in Scotland who
came from that small community, and she comes back to
try and figure out what's happened to this child, what
the backstory is. There's lots and lots of twists, and

(04:03):
you know, a good thriller is peppered with all sorts
of plot changes and personal dynamics, and it really delivers those.
It's very good.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Oh looking forward to having a look at that. That
is The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin and also The
Cutthroat Trial by SJ.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Fleet.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Thanks John, we'll fork next week.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
See you then.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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