More Than Hot – Graham Moore & The Holdout

Graham Moore’s latest novel, The Holdout, is not only the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen, it’s hot in the media world as well. Deadline broke the news that the book has been purchased by Hulu. According to the article, https://bit.ly/2Puy7km, “In a competitive situation involving multiple bidders, Hulu has landed The Holdout, a legal thriller drama from Oscar-winning writer Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) based on his latest novel.”

“Moore executive produces with Timberman and Beverly of Timberman-Beverly.”

“Moore’s The Holdout “takes a searing look at the U.S. justice system, media scrutiny, and racism,” per Publisher’s Weekly. Moore is a New York Times bestselling author, whose novels have been published in 25 languages to date. As a screenwriter, he won an adapted screenplay Oscar and a BAFTA for The Imitation Game.

You can ask Moore questions about The Holdout on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 2 PM when he appears at The Poisoned Pen to sign copies of the book. Can’t make it? Order signed copies of it, or copies of his other books, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2HWiz4B

Here’s what you might want to know about The Holdout.

One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?From the Academy Award”“winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and bestselling author of The Last Days of Night. . . .

“Exhilarating . . . a fiendishly slippery game of cat-and-mouse suspense and a provocative, urgent inquiry into American justice (and injustice) in the twenty-first century.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

It’s the most sensational case of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune, vanishes on her way home from school, and her teacher, Bobby Nock, a twenty-five-year-old African American man, is the prime suspect. The subsequent trial taps straight into America’s most pressing preoccupations: race, class, sex, law enforcement, and the lurid sins of the rich and famous. It’s an open-and-shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed—until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, convinced of Nock’s innocence, persuades the rest of the jurors to return the verdict of not guilty, a controversial decision that will change all their lives forever.

Flash forward ten years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jury, with particular focus on Maya, now a defense attorney herself. When one of the jurors is found dead in Maya’s hotel room, all evidence points to her as the killer. Now, she must prove her own innocence—by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed.

As the present-day murder investigation weaves together with the story of what really happened during their deliberation, told by each of the jurors in turn, the secrets they have all been keeping threaten to come out—with drastic consequences for all involved.