The Sentence

By: Christina Dalcher

Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow, Greg Lockett

The gripping new thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling phenomenon, VOX

‘Shocking, emotive, urgent and original’ Chris Whitaker

’A non-stop thrill ride’ Jeffery Deaver

’Queen of the “what if” thriller. Unflinching, unguessable and unputdownable’ Simon Lelic

’Thrilling, topical and timely … I ripped through this in a few days’ Louise Swanson

’Provocative, inventive and compulsively page-turning’ David Koepp

The one decision you can’t take back

Prosecutor, Justine Boucher has only asked for the death penalty once, in a brutal murder case.

In doing so, she put her own life on the line. Because, if the convicted are later found innocent, the lawyer who requested the execution will be sentenced to death.

Justine had no doubt that the man she sent to the chair was guilty.

Until now.

Presented with evidence that could prove his innocence, Justine must find out the truth before anyone else does.

Her life depends on it.

©2023 Christina Dalcher (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

‘Chilling, thought-provoking and furiously compelling. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.’ B P WALTER

’Absorbing, dynamic, button-pushing’ ROSS ARMSTRONG

‘A riveting treatise on criminal justice’ ALLISON DICKSON

‘Thought-provoking, intelligent and utterly gripping’ ROZ WATKINS

Praise for Christina Dalcher

‘A truly compulsive novel’ STYLIST

‘Intelligent, suspenseful, provocative, and intensely disturbing – everything a great novel should be’ LEE CHILD

‘Thought-provoking and thrilling’ WOMAN & HOME

‘Extraordinary’ LOUISE O’NEILL

‘A fast-paced, twisting thriller’ DAILY MAIL

‘Terrifyingly plausible’ LOUISE CANDLISH

‘[Dalcher] knows how to hit the emotional buttons . . .compelling’ GUARDIAN

a great story of twists and turns

how far would you go to put something right?
An unusual premise...Christina is so good at these. Edge of your seat stuff.

Another great one from Christina Dalcher

The story was great, lots of spots that trigger you to examine your own insights.
It seemed less dystopian than her previous works and, for this story I am very glad that it wasn't because I think that gives it a level of plausibility in a readers mind.
I am glad that there were two narrators, it makes the story easier to follow when you have alternating narrators throughout the book, for there to be distinctly diffrent voices

Thought-provoking read on the topic of capital punishment

Smart and compelling account of what happens when extreme measures are employed in an attempt to rectify injustice.

Not what I was expecting!

If you are a fan of this authors other work then you'll enjoy this story!

Interesting story, not my favourite Dalcher work

The story was fine, but (for me) lacked the novelty of Dalcher's other books. There wasn't really enough exploration of how the protagonist made a decision that was so fundamentally against her ethics, she was literally famous for her advocacy. The explanation of her choices was a bit hollow, and therefore, kinda requires you to suspend belief, and just go with it. Don't get me wrong, I was engaged through the whole story, and I think the book explores important ethical considerations about our legal systems. It just doesn't have quite the refined polish of her other works.

The narration was mostly not noteworthy, which I guess is good enough. I do have one rather significant gripe, though. The narrator seems to think every single child has a speech impediment. For a story that had MULTIPLE children at the center of the plot, this was distracting, and pretty annoying.