Steve Cavanagh, one of Ireland’s leading civil-rights attorneys, is the thriller writer that the biggest thriller writers are reading. From Lee Child to Michael Connelly, Ruth Ware to Ian Rankin, the genre’s most recognizable names have raved about Cavanagh’s rip-roaring, wildly-clever novels that star Eddie Flynn, the con-man-turned defense lawyer, who the Irish Times described as “Jack Reacher’s younger, hotter-headed brother.” Not only are Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn novels bestsellers in Ireland and the UK, they are critically acclaimed and award-winning—The Defense was nominated for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Thriller of the Year, and The Plea won the Prix Polar Award for Best International Novel. But THIRTEEN (Flatiron Books; on-sale 8/13/19), which features a truly sinister serial killer akin to Ted Bundy, is, quite simply, Cavanagh’s finest yet. But don’t take my word for it, perhaps Michael Connelly put it best when he said: “[THIRTEEN is] a dead bang BEAST of a book that expertly combines [Cavanagh’s] authority on the law with an absolutely great thrill ride. Books this ingenious don’t come along very often.”
Set in bustling Manhattan, and told with prose as visceral and gritty as New York City’s dark criminal underbelly, THIRTEEN begins with what appears to be a senseless act of violence. It’s anything but. Disguised as a homeless man, serial killer Joshua Kane murders a postal worker in order to steal a jury summons for a court case dubbed The Trial of the Century in which movie star Bobby Solomon is accused of brutally murdering his beloved actress wife and their security guard. But this open-and-shut case of a love affair gone wrong isn’t so cut and dry to Eddie Flynn. As the trial begins, and with the evidence strong against his innocent client, Flynn and a quirky cast of P.I.s and FBI agents urgently set out to uncover the real killer. As it turns out, he’s hiding in plain sight as juror number thirteen. And he killed to be there.
Combining jaw-dropping action, ingenious, brain-scrambling plot twists, and heart-palpitating courtroom drama that only a lawyer could pen, THIRTEEN has all the hallmarks of a bestselling thriller, which is why Sarah Pinborough decreed Cavanagh “the John Grisham for a new generation.”
The 13 Most Thrilling Blurbs for THIRTEEN
“Outstanding - an intriguing premise, a tense, gripping build-up, and a spectacular
climax.
This guy is the real deal. Trust me.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling
author
“A brilliant, twisty, ingeniously constructed puzzle of a book. Steve Cavanagh pulls o%
an enviable premise with panache.”—Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling
author
“I’ve been tracking Steve Cavanagh for a few years now and Thirteen is his best, a dead
bang BEAST of a book that expertly combines his authority on the law with an
absolutely great thrill ride. Books this ingenious don’t come along very often.”—
Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Thirteen is an outstanding legal thriller, so original, clever and accomplished that it
should not be missed. It marks out Cavanagh as the heir apparent to John Grisham.”—
Express (UK)
“Dazzling…One of the most accomplished legal dramas I have read this year, it reminds
me of Scott Turow’s stunning Presumed Innocent…The trial itself reveals Cavanagh’s
astonishingly sure touch for character and the skill of his serpentine plotting.”—Daily
“Reading Thirteen is like living inside the scripts of the best Criminal Minds episodes
ever. Steve Cavanagh keeps a dizzying pace in this page-turning and heart pounding
thriller!”—Mary O’Malley, Anderson Bookshop
“Fast-paced and absorbing thriller…Prepare to buckle up as a smattering of seemingly
isolated events spiral into a twist-laden read that challenges the very essence of the
American dream.”—The Glasgow Herald
“Steve Cavanagh is the John Grisham for a new generation. Slick, thrilling and unique,
Thirteen is my favorite read of the year.”—Sarah Pinborough, New York Times
bestselling author
“A great hook and the book lives up to it!”
—Ian Rankin
‘Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh quite simply deserves to be HUGE. If you read a thriller as
good next year, it’s only because you’ve read this one twice.’—Mark Billingham
“Thirteen is a distinctly superior example of the genre.”