The Aladdin Trial – Abi Silver
An elderly local artist plunges 100 feet to her death at an overstretched London hospital and the police immediately sense foul play. The hospital cleaner, a Syrian refugee and loner, is arrested for her murder. He protests his innocence, but why has he given her the story of Aladdin to read, and why does he shake uncontrollably in times of stress?
Judith Burton and Constance Lamb reunite to defend a man the media has already convicted. Together they uncover not only the cleaner’s secrets, but also those of the artist’s family, her lawyer and the hospital.
A new Burton and Lamb legal thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Pinocchio Brief.
My thanks to Lightning Books for my review copy
This review is long overdue. Now that summer holidays are over, my kids have returned to school and “normal” is slowly returning I can try to catch up on writing reviews of my summer reads. I wanted to start with a good one so The Aladdin Trial was an easy choice in that regard.
The lead characters, Judith Burton and Constance Lamb, first appeared in Abi Silver’s The Pinocchio Brief. While reading the first book will give you a little extra detail on their background (and give you a great story to enjoy) you will not be disadvantaged in coming “cold” to The Aladdin Trial which can easily be read as a stand alone thriller.
In this story we have a distressing tale of an elderly artist taking a tumble from a hospital balcony and falling to her death. Suspicions are raised that this may not have been an accident and the police turn their attention to a hospital cleaner, a refugee from Syria, who had befriended the woman during her stay.
Judith and Constance will represent the cleaner in court but evidence is mounting up against their client and he is not providing his legal team with any reliable information with which they can defend him.
Away from the legal fact-finding and court preparations the reader also gets to see the children of the artist coping with the fallout of her death (and I assure you that no pun was intended there). Unbeknown to her children the artist had accumulated some personal wealth down the years and has drafted a will which requires certain conditions to be met before her children will inherit. Those conditions, while not unreasonable, show that the woman expected certain duties or responsibilities to be met by her offspring before they can inherit. Watching two adults (and their partners) trying to change their ways made for fascinating and frequently awkward reading.
Lots of twists and turns through the story made The Aladdin Trial a great story to spend time with over my holiday. If you like a courtroom drama then add Abi Silver to your reading lists – two goodun’s…and counting!
The Aladdin Trial is available in paperback and digital format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aladdin-Trial-thriller-acclaimed-Pinocchio-ebook/dp/B07C8BB466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534798231&sr=8-1&keywords=the+aladdin+trial