Wasn't sure what to expect from this book but oh my God what a read. I found myself unable to put it down and re-read some of the 'evidence' to get my mind in the right place. I laughed, commiserated and even shed a tear in some places for the defendant. Thoroughly enjoyed this book. And at the end of it all, was he guilty??

You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood

This book is categorised as General Fiction but it is so much more than that. It is a particular viewpoint questioning our criminal justice system, gang culture, the disparity between different roles assigned to us within society and, in my opinion, a love story.

The fact that the Defendant is never identified by name serves to point out that this could be ‘anyman’ within the circumstances of his race, class, education. His opening speech mentions Lord Palmerston who spoke for 5 hours a feat that he assures us he is unable to replicate. However, his speech continues for 10 days in which he attempts to clarify how a) led to b) led to c) - led him to be on trial for the murder of Jamil (JC) a member of a gang, although he, himself, was never a gang-member. His speech gives an in-depth analysis of the circumstances surrounding the crime of which he is accused and the factors leading up to his present position.

The other main characters are very well defined by Mahmood. We have portraits of his mother, his sister (Bless), his girlfriend (Kira) and his friend (Curt) and in opposition we have Kira’s brother, the different gangs and the Establishment. . In retrospect it is as though they were with him, telling their story. These all come to life through the Defendants voice; a voice that defines his position in society, full of slang or patois. At the same time, his testimony shows that he is intelligent, that he is empathic.

I was deeply moved by his description of Kira (location 1064), so profound, so insightful.

This is an extremely clever, thought-provoking book, as it is meant to be. It serves to question the notion of a ‘fair trial’ or ‘trial by your peers’. Now, I do feel I know who he is and I do like him but I am left pondering the issues that were raised.

If you like court-room drama, this really is a must for you. It is absolutely brilliant.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book via Kindle in return for an honest review.

This was awesome! I loved the different perspective and way of telling the court room story- it completely worked and kept me guessing!

Omg what a good read this was, if I'm honest though I struggled to start off due to the way the guy spoke about "tings"....! But obv he is going to tak like that but it got a little bit of getting used to at first. I'm glad he explained the slang as I was clueless haha! But gee whizz the book was great had me hooked and turning pages well into the night, read it in a day and was gutted when it ended as I'm like what? But you can't just do that? What about well??

Won't say anything else haha, great book loved listening to the background of the story and how it all intertwined together would defo read more by this guy for sure!!

You Don't Know Me has an interesting premise well executed, a terrifically strong and authentic character voice and an intriguing and compelling story.

Its a little early to write up a full review I'll be featuring this on the blog nearer to publication, but I loved it for its differences, the fact that the reader is the jury for this one and whilst I felt the ending was slightly weaker than the rest, overall this was an entirely gripping narrative that you just want to binge read to the end. That is in fact exactly what I did. Beautifully done.

Clever. One to watch in June. In fact June is shaping up to be a top bookish month.