Catherine Raynes: Manhattan Down and The Cut Throat Trial

Manhattan Down by Michael Cordy  

On the anniversary eve of the 9/11 terror attack, New York swelters under a heat dome of record temperatures. Even the global leaders assembled at the UN HQ are forced to admit that the climate crisis has reached boiling point and the world's time is running out.  

That same day, at precisely 5-25 p.m., everyone on Manhattan Island - every man, woman and child, including all the world leaders at the UN - falls unconscious. Everyone that is, except for Samantha Rossi, a single mother reeling from devastating personal news and Nick Lockwood, a wounded NYPD detective who wakes from a coma just as the City That Never Sleeps falls into one.  

Rossi's first concern is her daughter. Lockwood's is his city. As night draws in, they must work together to unravel the mystery of what has happened and why. Each must decide how far they will go and what lines they will cross to save what matters most to them.  

Manhattan Down is a pulse-pounding contemporary thriller which dares to imagine the unimaginable, a leaderless world being held to ransom by forces unknown for reasons unknown. The questions it asks are terrifying - and so are some of the answers. 

  

The Cut Throat Trial by S.J. Fleet, The Secret Barrister  

It is one of the biggest trials of the year. Three seventeen-year-old boys are accused of the brutal murder of an elderly teacher on New Year's Eve. 

Each boy denies it. 
Each points the finger at the other two. 
But they can’t all be innocent. 

The three defence barristers have only one job: to persuade the jury that their client is not guilty. But they’re up against a prosecutor who needs to win the case, no matter the cost. 

Because when the game is murder, the competition is deadly. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from Newstalk zb Twitter.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
To twelve on New Stork ZBB, which means it's time
to get your book picks for the weekend. Katherine Rains
is our book reviewer. She's here and our Hi Catherine,
Morning Jack. Let's begin this morning with a new novel
from Michael Cordy tell us about Manhattan Down.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
So this is an action packed thriller. And the climate
crisis has reached this very critical moment in times running
out for the world, particularly the richest nations, and they
decide to take some to decisive action to save the planet.
And so world leaders have gathered for a United Nations
summit at the UN headquarters in New York, and it's
been termed the Summit of Resilience and Hope. And you know,

(00:49):
there's swell foring temperatures and thousands of protesters, and this
woman called Samantha Rossi insists her daughter, teenage daughter Zoe,
has to attend school and not the protest. And then
there's more things that go on in this very distressing
news And meanwhile there's this detective, a guy called Nick Lolockwood,
whose attempt to protect us of pars partner Paula O'Malley

(01:11):
when she leads a chase and she's into conspiracy, therapies
and all sorts of things. And he wakes up eight
days later from a coma, and when he wakes up,
he discovers that everybody in the city at five twenty
five has fallen unconscious, apart from him and Samantha. And
then there's this group who identified themselves using only the
names of the Seven Deadly Sins and are out for revenge.

(01:33):
And they've got this list of demands and they're determined
that they're going to destroy Manhattan and everybody in it.
And of course the plot's completely outlandish and it's got
lots of twists, but it's a very thought provoking novel
based on, you know, lots of things that we kind
of see happening in the world now, and it kind
of brings in.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
That real world.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Is this really so far removed from what's going on now?
And it's yeah, makes makes you think a little bit
more nice.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay, cool, that's Manhatten Down. That's by Michael Cordy. You've
also read The Cutthroat Trial by SJ. Fleet, So this
is sorry The Can't Throat Trial by es J. Fleet
The Secret Barrister.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yes, so this says kind of s. J. Fleet is
a pen name and has written under a name called
the Secret Barrister as well, so it kind of gives
them a bit of an idea what the book might
be about. And this is the King versus three teenage
boys Craig Mervin Scott, Aaron Freeman and Jamil Lowten and
they charged with the murder of Bernard Cooper, who was
a seventy four year old retired headteacher. And this happens

(02:35):
and takes place on the first of January twenty twenty four,
so we kind of meet all of this in the
middle of the murder trial at Ablefield Crown Court. And
it's a really gripping story and it takes place almost
entirely in the courtroom, and you watch the trial unfold
and the ins and outs and the testimony from witnesses
and defendants and evidence along the way, and all with

(02:57):
kind of this question in your head about who's telling
the truth and what really happened. And it's told from
different points of view, the prosecuting barrister, defense barrister, the judge,
and two defendants, and so you get all that complexity
of the law and its applications, but you get to
see kind of the minds of the characters as well,
because you form opinions about those people and you're hearing

(03:19):
about their histories and their backgrounds, not just of the
defendants but the barristers and the police and the judge.
And so those courtroom scenes become intensely suspenseful as those
questions and authors go back and forth and twists that
are unexpected, and just as you think you really know
what's going on, things literally change. And it's a really
compelling look at the imperfections of the justice system by

(03:43):
and written by someone who I think knows an awful
lot about this, and it really feels like it when
you're reading the book.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, okay, it sounds really interesting, all right. So that
is The Cutthroat Trial by East J. Fleet, the Secret
Barrister Catherine's first book, Manhattan Down by Michael Cordy. Both
of those are beyond the News Talks They'd be website for.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
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