Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Devil's Advocate

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The Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanagh

11 reviews

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I love that we've taken Eddie and Harry out of New York and given them a whole load of rural-deep-south hostility from the locals to deal with. It changes up the narrative a bit and is a good point in the series to mix things up. The new foursome with Kate and Bloch is also working brilliantly, and I can't get enough of them all together!

This story is bleak, and highlights some of the problems that are still so prevalent in parts of the US (racism, corruption, political extremism). It's a little scary how easily this could all be true. It was wonderful having this group of inherently good people in the fight, but my goodness it was shocking the lengths some of the characters went to in order to further their cause. For a time we really couldn't trust anyone.

I absolutely love it when Eddie - and now Kate - takes someone down in the courtroom. This is where this whole series shines and The Devil's Advocate doesn't disappoint. This installment felt so unique, and between that and the wonderful characters it might be my favourite Eddie Flynn so far. We got to know (and love) Kate and Bloch better, Harry is settling into a bigger role with Eddie, and I can't wait to read the next one and see how it continues.

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neverlandpages4's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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kiirsttyb's review

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This series always manages to baffle me and I was thinking to myself that this book won’t annoy me as much as the others and guess what? I was dead wrong. This book made me so angry and at times I had to remind myself it was a fictional book.

This book has multiple point of views, but it mainly follows Eddie Flynn who was once a con man and is now a lawyer, who had opened his own law firm with the help of Kate Brooks who we met in the last book. They are desperately after a secretary to handle the chaos of the little office and the team. As Eddie is trying to sort through his office and paperwork, someone he knows calls for a favour. He wants Eddie to go to Alabama and take down a corrupt lawyer and to save a young boy’s life. They call him the King of Death Row, Randal Korn has sent more men to their deaths than any district attorney in the history of the United States. When a young woman named Skylar Edwards is found murdered, a corrupt sheriff arrests the last person to see her alive, Andy Dubois. It doesn’t seem to matter to anyone that Andy is innocent. Everyone in Buckstown believes Andy is guilty. He has no hope of a fair trial. And the local defence attorney assigned to represent him has disappeared. Eddie decides to fight fire with fire. He plans to destroy the prosecutor's case, find the real killer and save Andy from the electric chair. But the murders are just the beginning. Is Eddie Flynn next?

I don’t think I have hated a character or had a book make me so pissed off before. This book was incredibly infuriating, I think it was since this could actually happening right now all over the world. How many times have people read about being wrongly convicted or corrupt cops? Tons. So this book felt a little bit too real for a fictional book. The number of times I wanted to through this book at a wall or out of a window especially when you were reading about what Korn and the white supremacy group was doing in this small town.

The only thing that got me through this book was Eddie and the team. I love them all. I love that they all had a massive impact and their own chapters on what they were doing and how they were helping the case. I liked seeing more of Kate becoming more and more confident in herself and in the courtroom especially with how the last book ended. Bloch is still growing on me but she reminds me a lot like Ziva from NCIS, this sort of mysterious badass women who has a soft side but you don’t really see it a lot – though we saw a small speck of it in this book – and Harry, I would die for. I thought we were going to lose another team member in this book but I'm so glad we didn’t. The courtroom chapters have you on edge with what the lawyers are going to do and how the jury and the judge is going to act and react.

My favourite chapters in any type of these books are when the main character figures everything out and has a game plan. You feel hype out for the character and want him to succeed. The one thing I would say that I didn’t like personally, a book peeve of mine, is small chapters. However, for once it worked. Especially as the tension was building and then changed to somewhere else.

This book was hard-hitting and brutal, but Steve Cavanagh’s plot twists and reactive chapters kept you on edge and wanting to read more. I cannot wait for the next book in the series and to see who Eddie is facing next.

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jennyredgate's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.25

ok so i’m definitely struggling to rate this but i’ll go with 4.25⭐️ for now. i wasn’t enjoying the first 25% but after that it reallly picked up. the change in setting from new york to alabama was great and definitely allowed for new themes to be explored. it was definitely the most dark and disturbing book i’ve read by steve cavanagh (this was my third book by him) but i definitely liked it in the end. check tws

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mickeyzbookz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kaanderton99's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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kellyinbookland's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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c4rn4ge's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The pacing of the book starts off slow but finds a good rhythm until the last 100 or so pages where it becomes quicker and snappier. The ending was kind of expected and

a generic happy ending where almost everything works out

so I felt like I couldn't fully commit to a 5 star rating.

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whatischellereading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Firstly, thank you so much to @sscav, @alexxlayt and @orionbooks for allowing me to be one of the first 100 people to read The Devil’s Advocate! You really could have scraped me off of the ceiling when I received the email.

There’s yet to be an Eddie Flynn novel that hasn’t left me on the edge of my seat, or shouting at the book, or texting my sister with the regular “OMG”s. I didn’t think the shock factor could get any shocking than in Fifty Fifty but nope, Cavanagh has done it again and to be honest, I think this one has left me the most mentally exhausted! It is one crazy ride - you have been warned! With a gripping death penalty case, in a small town influenced by a corrupt district attorney it’s impossible not to be sucked in and instantly connected to the story. Mixed with a cast of loveable characters and tension building as the story progresses it is one of my favourite reads of the year so far.

There’s nothing I don’t love about Eddie Flynn - the cockiness of his actions, purely on a gamble, relying on wit and intuition, you can’t not love him! Harry Ford… I love you, I need you in my life! The retired judge is the “father figure” of the group and had one of the best lines in the book when it came to Kate examining the medical examiner on the stand. Speaking of Kate, if you love a lawyer who is as loyal as the day is long, she’s your gal! But Bloch, wow! Such a badass! If I’m in a life threatening scenario then I want Bloch!

The subjects explored in The Devil’s Advocate are some of the most important subjects in the world today - racism, corruption and terrorism - and Steve Cavanagh deserves an award for this sheer work of art. Not only for casting a light on these matters but also giving us a lesson in the history of such cases. It’s opened my eyes to a lot of things going on in the world which I have never really thought about, and the fact that some states in America still use the death penalty is mind boggling. We’ve all seen things on TV about miscarriages of justice or wrongful imprisonment and the idea that someone could be put to death for something they didn’t do terrifies me.

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