The Protest by Rob Rinder
| The Protest by Rob Rinder | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: It's the third book in an engaging series which tells you how the law really works. Recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 400 | Date: June 2025 |
| Publisher: Century | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1529934755 | |
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For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in the nick of time, complete with his two wives and six children, one of whom filmed what happened. Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was fortunate that there was a record of the protest. Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting Stop the War. It seemed to be part of an ongoing series of 'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead.
It seemed like an open-and-shut case, and one set of barristers at Stag Court were jubilant that they had the simple job of prosecuting Williams. There might even be a terrorism charge to add into the mix as the Home Secretary had been attacked the previous week. Had he been intended to die too? The defence barristers, with Adam Green as the junior, were less convinced of the girl's guilt. She wasn't particularly likeable, and had found lockdown difficult, but what evidence was there that she had been radicalised? Why would she want to kill the artist?
As if Adam didn't have enough to do, preparing this case, he was roped into a pro bono case where a lance corporal in the army was accused of murder. Once again, it appears that a guilty verdict is likely, but not everything is as it seems.
Rob Rinder writes the Adam Green series of novels from intimate, inside knowledge, and it shows. It's easy to see when a book has been written from research, with every little bit of information shovelled in in the hope of achieving verisimilitude. The Adam Green books are the reverse: you sense that there's a lot more that hasn't been said. It's the law as it works, and this is what gave me a slight disappointment about the book. I like an answer, a resolution and The Protest doesn't end with a satisfied sigh from the reader. It was, though, a good read, and I finished it within twenty-four hours.
As well as reading the book, I listened to an audiobook that I bought for myself. It was narrated by Josh Dylan, who has narrated earlier books in the series. He has an excellent range of voices - I was never in any doubt as to who was speaking, which is no mean feat when listening to a story about barristers and their juniors. It would be easy for them all to sound alike. Dylan also has a knack of not intruding between the author and their reader, which makes for a more engaging read. I hope he'll narrate further books in the series.
Each of the books will read as a stand-alone, but you will get more from the series if you start from the beginning. Here's a chronological list:
Rob Rinder's Adam Green Series of Novels in Chronological Order
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