Review: Directed Verdict by Randy Singer

Genre: Legal Thriller
Publisher: Tyndale House
Released: Oct. 15, 2002
420 pages

About the Book:

In Saudi Arabia, two American missionaries are targeted by the infamous religious police―Muttawa. The man is tortured and killed; his wife arrested on trumped-up charges before being deported to the United States. Compelled by the injustice of her plight, young attorney Brad Carlson files an unprecedented civil rights suit against Saudi Arabia and the ruthless head of the Muttawa. But the suit unleashes powerful forces that will stop at nothing to vindicate the Arabian kingdom. Witnesses are intimidated and some disappear; jurors are bribed; and a member of Brad’s own team may be attempting to sabotage the case. As Brad navigates a maze of treachery and deception, he must gamble his case, his career, and the lives of those he loves on his ability to bring justice to one family, challenge the religious intolerance of a nation, and alter the course of international law.

My Rating & Thoughts:    ⭐⭐⭐

This is a legal suspense and I seriously thought about dnfing while reading the first three chapters. It begins in Saudi Arabia with two missionaries Charles and Sarah Reed and the Mwata police come to arrest them because they are Christian missionaries try to convert from Muslims to Christianity. In these first few scenes we are witness the torture of Charles and Sarah Reed and it was so descriptive and so unsettling to my spirit I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue reading. Because I had read the book summary, I knew that there was a trial in America involving how these two American’s were treated in Saudi Arabia so I was thinking, okay we are just getting the background of what happened and it will not be like this the whole way through so I decided to keep going. We then meet Brad Carson who is the American lawyer working in Norfolk, Virginia. In his opening scene he is in the courtroom defending a case, we get some background information on him and this particular judge. However, this particular case is about pro-life and there was a scene that was pretty descriptive of how a certain abortion procedure happens and I was like I don't want to know this, this is way too descriptive for me. So again, I was questioning if I wanted to keep going. However, I knew this book received the Christie award for being a mystery suspense in 2002/2003 so I thought it can’t be that bad let’s keep going. I am happy to say that the abortion thing is in that one chapter and is never brought up again. However, the torture scenes that happen do get shared a bit during the trial as witnesses and victims must explain what happened, however this is not as detailed as it was at the beginning. By the trial part of the book I was invested in the characters and cheering for Sarah and Brad's team. Everything seems to really be stacked against them in this case, will they be able to win? We learn shortly after the case is filed that there is a mole inside Brad's team, and they are providing information to the other side leaving us to ask who this person is and why are they doing this? There are little hints dropped throughout the book about who this person is but very generic. We learn their gender but that only narrows it down so much. We don't learn who it was and why until the last few chapters. When it was revealed I was shocked as I was positive it was somebody else and I was also blindsided by their motivation. I really enjoyed this part of the book. However, I gave this book three stars because even though I didn’t like the opening scenes and due to the vast number of characters to keep track of it, I was hooked for the last third needing to know who the mole was. This is a very heavy subject matter, Christians being persecuted and attacked for their faith in Saudi Arabia.  If you're going to read it know going in that it can get very descriptive with the torture scenes. 

(I purchased my copy of this book; opinions expressed 

in this review are my honest opinion and completely my own.)

Check out my reviews of other books by this author: 

   

By Reason of Insanity

Fatal Convictions 

The Judge