The Cut Throat Trial by S. J. Fleet (The Secret Barrister)

 

Three youths are on trial for the brutal murder of an old man. Each of them is blaming the other two. It is down to the barristers to unearth the truth of what happened on the fateful night.

The definition of a cut-throat defense is one where a defendant gives evidence that is damaging to a co-defendant's case, even going as far as directly accusing them of the crime committed. S. J. Fleet (The Secret Barrister) has used this as the basis for the novel The Cut Throat Trial.

From the opening pages, which detail the horrific crime carried out by the three defendants, Craig, Arron and Jamal, I was hooked and didn't want to put the book down until I'd finished. The trial is relayed from a variety of perspectives: the judge presiding over the case, the prosecuting barrister, the three defense barristers, and the three teenagers. Each has a very distinct voice, from the pompous barrister defending Craig, to Jamal's emotionally unstable barrister, through to the desperate prosecutor. We discover that the people behind the gowns and wigs have lives that impact the role they play.

Reading felt very much like being a fly-on-the-wall during the trial, with the added bonus of knowing the thoughts of the individuals concerned. There are hints that events are not as clear-cut as they first seem. Unreliable, volatile and unpredictable witnesses add confusion and make the task of the barristers more difficult.

As the trial progressed, we are introduced to multiple versions of what happened. As important information is withheld, both accidentally and intentionally, you never quite know what actually happened. Even when the defendants take the stand and, little by little, lies are uncovered, you still have that hesitancy. Can you trust what any of them are saying? Are they simply looking to protect themselves? 

Despite the terrible crime committed, it was impossible not to feel some sympathy for the three young men accused of murder. Dysfunctional home lives show the clear route to crime, one that is played out on a regular basis around the country. We also see how Young Offender Institutions, where the three accused are held on remand, can be grim and violent.

By switching between the different characters and drip feeding us information, the author keeps the reader hooked and the pages turning. Not only was I fully invested in the outcome of the trial, but I also wanted to know what happened on the night in question. We are also given a glimpse of what proceedings in a Crown Court are like, as, hopefully, this is something very few of us will experience. It is vastly different from the vision we frequently see portrayed in American TV dramas.

Even at the end of the trial, when the jury gives their verdict, there is still that sense of misgiving, a feeling that not everything has been laid bare. Luckily, the final few pages put to rest those nagging doubts and worries.

The Cut Throat Trial by S. J. Fleet/The Secret Barrister will be published on 28th August 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a review copy.

Author Details

The bestselling author, The Secret Barrister, writes fiction as S. J. Fleet. A junior barrister specializing in criminal law, they write for many publications and are the author of the award-winning The Secret Barrister blog. Their first book, The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, was a Sunday Times number-one bestseller and spent more than a year in the top-ten bestseller list; it won the Books Are My Bag Non-Fiction Award and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year and the Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies and Nothing But the Truth: The Memoir of an Unlikely Lawyer were instant Sunday Times top-ten bestsellers on publication. The Cut Throat Trial is their first novel.