Book Review: The Holdout by Graham Moore

I liked this one. As a former lawyer (albeit never a trial attorney), I’m always fascinated to see how writers choose to relay attorney protocol and ethical dilemmas and courtroom procedure and issues. While admitting I’m no expert, I think Moore did a fine job with these aspects of the story – they felt weighty but not overblown, with equal measures of respect for the system and a recognition that the system is inherently (IMHO) limited (if not outright flawed) in its ability to balance truth and justice. But by far, I think he did a finer job walking the line on issues of personal responsibility, guilt, and the complications of being a human player attempting that balancing act between truth and justice…

I enjoyed the back-and-forth nature of the narrative, finding the interplay between then and now in the relationships between characters and the outcomes of their decisions to be well-crafted and well-delivered. The story held my attention from the get-go. I was angry, uncomfortable, guilty, and self-satisfied throughout – sometimes all at the same time – and felt like my descent into the effortless roil of emotions was a natural outcome of the engaging writing style.

I have enjoyed Moore before – although we don’t always meld. I loved reading The Sherlockian and watching The Imitation Game and found myself immediately catapulted into those stories as I was into this one – but struggled mightily with The Last Days of Night and ultimately wasn’t able to find my way into the story enough to finish it. In The Holdout, I think he brought the intensity of TIG and TLDoN while maintaining the storytelling flow of TS, and it worked well for me and for this tale. I think he’s a very talented writer, capable of evoking a sense of time and place that feels authentic and when he does so, it pulls the reader into the created world hook, line, and sinker.

There were a couple of twists here that I really think added to the tension and emotional resonance of the story. They were well-managed and dropped in almost casually, in a way that I think added to their impact. Too many authors seem to feel the need to aim for an obnoxious sense of shock value with their revelations; it’s getting old for me and the heavy-handed nature feels forced and often disrupts the flow of the tale. Not so at all here; the twisty-turny bits were deftly added in at just the right time with just the right amount of emotional attachment. It made for a thoroughly engaging read that I would recommend in a heartbeat. I think that, based on this read, I will have to give TLDoN another look – and will definitely be on the lookout for his next book…

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.