You’ll need to suspend your believability! If you can....then I think you’ll walk away loving the new favorite summer thriller! The opening chapter of Th1rt3en goes straight in there and brings us our first encounter with Joshua Kane. A scruffy, homeless guy begging outside the Criminal Courts Building in Manhattan. The guy shows patience, intelligence and a calculated coldness of a hit man. But Kane is not a hit man. We learn that he is on a mission. His mission. For his own form of justice. The whole purpose of Kane’s first ‘incident’ in the book is so that he can guarantee himself a place on the jury of a specific murder trial.

This book was very unique. There were a lot of twists and turns that I did not see coming and lots of jaw dropping moments.Eddie and the killer were both compelling characters. Both intelligent and calculating, setting up chess moves to counter each other, one after another, in a battle of wits. Even the other characters from Art Pryor to Harper are well crafted and memorable. Some of the killer’s actions seemed inexplicable. The jury never really came into play in the story which was disappointing for someone who enjoys jury battles. Having said that, it does not take away the fact that this is a well-crafted story. Lawyer Eddie Flynn is working the celebrity murder trial of the century. Evidence points to Bobby's guilt, but as the trial begins so do a series of sinister incidents that can't be ignored. But Solomon’s lawyer Eddie Flynn starts to suspect that there is more than one actor in the courtroom and that the wrong man is on trial. I’m not going to lie, I pre-judged this. I made an ass out of myself to myself, because I assumed... certain things. Out of honesty, I’ll admit I was expecting this to be somewhat juvenile.

When I read this teaser on the cover, I immediately wanted to read it and find out how a serial killer got a seat on the jury and how this show would play out! All the evidence points to Robert's guilt, but as the trial begins a series of sinister incidents in the court room start to raise doubts in Eddie's mind. He nodded. “Of course I do. You just pretty much described where I live.”Watching each character deal with these identity issues was the real crux of the book for me; it resonated deeply in my own experiences with alchoholism. I'm not sure that I bought the 'gender and genetics' theme. The eponymous Variant Thirteens are human men, genetically modified to be as violent and selfish as our pre-civilisation ancestors, and are consequently feared by all and tightly regulated: living on reservations or registered. The hero, Carl, is a Variant Thirteen who has bought himself a little more freedom by taking a job hunting down other variants. What happens when a Serial Killer finagles his way onto a Jury? Let’s call it what it is: One Wild Ride!The trial of ‘The People v. Robert Solomon’. Solomon is described as a small time kid who made it big in the world of acting. He had just hit the big time with a reality television programme which starred himself and his new wife. Everything was going brilliantly for this guy until he finds his wife and another man dead in their bed. Solomon is adamant that he had no involvement in their death. Fast forward a little and Solomon finds himself without legal representation and Eddie Flynn swoops in to rescue the guy.