Reading With Tyler

Name: Th1rt3en (Thirteen)
Series: Eddie Flynn #4
Author: Steve Cavanagh
Publisher: Headline
Format: Kindle
Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Contemporary, Crime
Noted Tropes: Red Herring, Outsmarting the Criminal, High Stakes
Steam or Spice: None

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Review:

I don’t read outside of my comfort zone very often, and when I do it can go either way – brilliantly or brilliantly poorly. Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh was a brilliant read. I saw one single TikTok on this book – saying that it was a brilliant read for October and the premise alone was enough for me to grab the kindle copy and make it one of my ‘must get to’ books of October.

I wasn’t aware originally that Thirteen was part of a series, and then a couple chapters in I remembered to mark it as currently reading on Goodreads and that was when it was revealed to me that this was in fact part of a series. Since the book was described as a standalone read in the TikTok I figured I was safe to continue reading – afterall, I didn’t intend to read the rest of the series anyway, they’re outside my comfort zone!

Little did I know that Eddie Flynn would have me hooked! This detective was a con man before his new life as a lawyer and he is a damn good lawyer! I can only imagine how good a con man he was (as I don’t think book one in the series is pre-Eddie Flynn’s lawyer days. I was immediately drawn in by his court room style and his character. Steve Cavanagh wrote a brilliantly unreliable yet highly intelligent narrator. Unreliable only because he isn’t all knowing, he’s just a lawyer with a really tough past that keeps biting him in the ass from what I can tell. And yet, his tactics are brilliant – his morals are unwavering (he won’t take a case if the client is in fact the bad guy!) and he’s desperately trying to win back his family.

Gosh I loved him… but lets talk about our killer. The reason I wanted to read this book was because of the premise that the killer wasn’t the one on trial, but actually he’s on the jury. And he’ll do anything to ensure a guilty verdict comes back for the innocent man. Honestly this was amazing. I didn’t even realise that there was really a mystery within the mystery novel of who the killer was. But right up until the reveal at the end of the book, I still hadn’t figured it out (in fact the guy I thought it was, was absolutely not the guy!!).

Thirteen is told from multiple POVs, just in case that is not something you’re interested in, but it really worked for this story. It was a huge benefit to the story and to the mystery, switching from the lawyer to killer.

The pacing was exactly as it needed to be, in my opinion. I’m used to fantasy novels where the pace can slow down in order to world build, but this book didn’t need world building. The information you needed to know about the various characters came so naturally that the pace never suffered for it. I think I read Thirteen in two sittings and even then I’d only paused on it because I had work in between! I am not the best to review the ins and outs of Mystery / Crime or Thriller books, but I can at least say the characters were brilliant, story had a hold on me and would not let go and the pacing was perfect.

Steve Cavanagh was an amazing dip into the world of Mystery, Crime and Thriller novels. I recommended it to a lot of my colleagues and family – people who aren’t known for wanting to read fantasy but who still enjoy reading. And to the shock of no one else more than me, I immediately purchased book 1 in the series and decided I had to read the whole thing! I’m glad this was my introduction to this world of novels, because it is a bloody good one!

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”