Reviews

• 『十二の怒れる男』のオマージュかな？

  裁判員制度が施行されて以降、裁判員（陪審員）が裁判の帰趨を左右するミステリは、すっかりお馴染だ。むしろ、弁護士、検事に、裁判員の意思が複雑に絡み合うという点で、よりドラマチックな盛り上がりを見せてくれるようになった。 本作品では、TVの名物キャスターが、糟糠の妻を殺害した容疑で裁判にかけられている。次々に、飛び出す数々の不利な状況証拠、そして被告に対するネガティブな証言。年齢、性別も職業も様々な12人の陪審員が、審理を通して個性を剥き出しにしていく様が見所である。 『十二の怒れる男』のオマージュかな？【CWA賞】

• 法廷物にある緊張感はない

  購入当初読んだのだが記憶に残らなかったので、最近になって再度読み返してみたところ、ミステリーとしての素材は揃っているものの、内容的には崩壊した家庭ドラマの延長線上のような話。 題名からすると法廷ドラマに重点があるように思えるのだが、法廷そのものに重要性はなく、そのためか法廷でのやり取りには緊張感も殆どない。 オチはミステリーを読みなれた読者からすれば斬新ではなく、むしろ早い時点で真相に気付くと思われる。（サスペンスドラマでよく使われるネタでしょうか。） 悪く言ってしまえば、親切で少しぐうたらな男が中途半端で無責任な正義感を持ったがために、招く必要のない災いを引き起こしたという話。 後味は悪いです。

• 公判の前半つらかった

  最初ＴＶキャスターのカーンが主人公かと思ってました。 人物紹介のページでもクインは"}"で陪審員１２人をひとまとめに表記した部分の一番最後に載っているだけだったので、 主人公がクインであることに気づかないまま100ページ読み進めました。 中盤過ぎからようやく物語に入りこむことができました。 この作品の良さは最後のどんでん返しですが、人によってはオチに気づいてしまうかも。 私も気づいてしまったほうです。 判決を決める陪審員の会議でなんであのことに疑問を持たないのかなと思っていた ところがオチでした。 なじみの薄かった陪審員制度について少し理解できた気がします。

• 小説としてはうまくまとまっているが、ミステリとしては…

  被告がＴＶの人気キャスターであることも、被告の娘が陪審員の一人の家にかくまわれることになった事にも、メイントリックにはあまり関係がないようだ。 確かに２６０ページほどの文量ながら、１２人の陪審員の描き分けや陪審員と娘の微妙な関係の描き分けなどはいい塩梅だとは思うが、ミステリとしては完全に短篇ネタ。しかも“読まれ”やすい。 ２００ページあまりの公判シーンでも、緊迫感も盛り上がりも、検事と弁護士とのやりとりや小どんでん返しのスリルもあまり感じられず。 テレビの１時間ドラマならラストのネタだけでもいいかもしれないが…。 これなら評決の部分だけの５０ページで充分ではないだろうか。読む時間も節約できるし、効果も大して変わらないから。タイトルが似ているから、というわけでもないが、芦辺拓『十三番目の陪審員』のほうが断然お勧めです。

• The Twelfth Juror--It's a mystery that this book isn't on everyone's top ten best list

  B. M. Gill is the pseudonym of British crime writer Barbara Margaret Trimble (b. 1921), who also writes under the name of Margaret Blake. I stumbled upon "The Twelfth Juror," because I have a particular interest in novels in which jurors are major characters (excluding all of Grisham's novels). If I weren't writing a series of mysteries myself about a juror-turned-amateur-sleuth, I probably would never have discovered this marvelous writer. Now I'm scouring the web for used copies of her other books, because everything she wrote appears to be out of print (last pub. date 1991)--and only published in the U.K. to boot. "The Twelfth Juror" is a page-turner and very smart, too--which is rare. Much like the BBC's miniseries, "The Jury," "The Twelfth Juror" follows a murder trial day by day and into deliberations; at night, though, it follows one of the jurors home. The twelve jurors are all interesting characters with personal reasons for agreeing to serve on the jury. The murder is a real whodunit. And the ending, while logical and inevitable, is startling. Find a used copy of this book here at Amazon. I paid only $0.39 plus $3.99 shipping/handling--and would have paid more given my reasons for buying it. Having read it, I will gladly pay more the rest of Ms. Trimble's "corpus."

• 12th Jururor

  Excellent.I do not usually like detective/murder but found this one very gripping and read to the end without looking at last few pages for the answer good twist at the end

• Courtroom drama with a focus on the jurors

  Brief summary and review, no spoilers. This book was written in the early 1980's and the story takes place during that time period. This is a courtroom drama and is mainly told from the point of view of two characters, one the defendant accused of murdering his wife and the other a juror on the case. The defendant is a well-known television personality named Edward Carne. He is accused of murdering his wife Jocelyn and hiding the body. Carne was a womanizer and one of his former girlfriends is a famous actress who takes the stand against him. We wonder whether another witness - a neighbor and friend of Edward's and Jocelyn's names Olivia - was also a former flame. What is curious is that Carne seems almost detached from the proceedings and that he is worried about his daughter Frances, a teenager who seems to have disappeared. Carne's defense attorney is frustrated because Carne seems unwilling to help him with the case and will not give him an alibi or take the stand in his own defense. The juror is named Robert Quinn and he is a 38 year old former journalist who has lost his job and fallen on rather hard times. He is currently allowing a bunch of homeless young people to stay at his place. For reasons that soon become apparent, Quinn has a personal interest in the case that would normally make him ineligible to sit on that jury. The trial only lasts a short while but we become privy to the thoughts of all twelve jurors and how they bring their own background personal histories into the deliberation room. Unlike the American criminal system, the jury only need to come to a 10-2 decision to convict or set free the defendant. The story resolves with a verdict and then a twist. I really liked the story and it's fun to read these old mysteries that can be told in under 200 pages - we have all become so used the massive door-stoppers written nowadays. I love the fact that we get the POV of jurors and get to listen in on their deliberations. The mystery is a good one with a fine twist at the end, albeit one that many of you may figure out early on. In critique, this story was not the page-turner for me that I thought it would be, especially at the start. We are given the names and brief background of all 12 jurors and you will often refer back to that page. Don't spend too much time trying to remember all this since Quinn is our main focus and we will gradually get to know the other jurors, some better than others. Still, I do recommend this book and it's a quick read. I am trying to go back and read all these well-known older mystery novels and I have literally put this one off for years. I'm glad I read it and it was fun reading a courtroom drama where the focus is on the jurors. Recommended.

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