A True Verdict

October 28, 2024
Rotstein’s stale latest (after The Out-of-Town Lawyer) dramatizes a wrongful termination lawsuit from more than 10 different perspectives. Through court transcripts and flashbacks, Rotstein spins a familiar tale of medical malpractice: after receiving FDA approval for Sophrosyne, a drug designed to end opiate addiction, pharmaceutical company MediMiracle is poised to dominate the market. Then researcher Ellison Ricard makes an alarming discovery during a trial study: Sophrosyne appears to increase the risk of stroke and fatal skin disorders among Black patients. After Ricard reports his findings and threatens to blow the whistle if they aren’t addressed, he’s fired by MediMiracle CEO Peyton Burke. Ricard files a civil suit against Burke and the company, throwing Sophrosyne’s future into question and putting the matter before an eight-person jury. Rotstein cycles through the well-rendered viewpoints of the jurors—an editor, a furniture magnate, a teacher, and a scientist among them—as well as those of the attorneys on both sides of the case, but the narrative structure does little to enhance the story’s themes, and it certainly doesn’t make the absurd denouement any easier to swallow. Even the author’s fans will struggle with this one. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary.

Starred review from December 15, 2024
Members of a deeply divided jury fight each other and themselves to render a just verdict in a civil case with more layers than a Dobosh Torte. Plaintiff Ellison K. Ricard claims that Peyton Burke, the founder and CEO of MediMiracle, fired him because he threatened to tell the FDA about his discovery that Sophrosyne, the anti-addiction treatment the firm had developed, was actually "a drug that kills Black people." Burke claims that she fired Ricard because he confronted and attacked her before a crowd of her employees. If both claims seem problematic--Ricard can produce no records demonstrating that Black subjects taking Sophrosyne in clinical trials had higher mortality rates than white subjects; his paralysis means he uses a wheelchair--you ain't heard nothing yet. Opposing attorneys M. Bailey Klaus (plaintiff) and Cicely Pagano (defense) take turns swatting down witnesses' testimonies, producing new evidence, and revealing their own prejudices. The real drama, however, is in the jury room. After two of the eight jurors get tossed off the case for scandalously improper behavior, the others wrestle in real time, debating the merits of every new bombshell as it's produced without waiting for the trial to end. The Vet Tech, the Retiree, the Cleaner, the Furniture Magnate, the Scientist, and the Editor form alliances and opposing teams, changing their minds and sides as they seek to persuade each other of a truth that seems to recede further and further. The result is less like12 Angry Men than like Raymond Postgate'sVerdict of Twelve (1940), painfully sharpened by the case's racial elements. A bravura demonstration of the truth that, as one of the jurors observes, "Our secrets define us as human beings."

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December 1, 2024
This has the makings for a real powder keg of a legal thriller. A scientist employed by a pharmaceutical company gets hints that the company's wonder pill might be damaging people. He turns whistleblower and discovers the corporation now has one thing in mind: destroying him. To keep the storyline fresh, Rotstein includes lengthy jury room wrangles, though what point is served isn't clear. We learn that one juror sympathizes with the "patriots" who tore up the Capitol on January 6. Another, a veterinarian assistant, steals animal medicine to treat migraines. Trial transcripts present the whistleblower as solid gold. He went through the company's chain of command and got rebuffed so harshly he brought a lawsuit. Mighty scientific minds testify for him, and he looks like a winner. Then pharma's witnesses take over and replay these scenes with different inflections, and we discover that maybe our hero isn't so golden. The ending is explosive, and not reassuring.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.