Modern day US but a law has been passed such that if a prosecutor asks for the death sentence and new evidence turn up to prove the now executed person was innocent, the prosecutor is executed. I found this to be an interesting premise.

My first time reading Christina Dalcher and, like others, I thought I would be reading a thriller. It is more than that. It is points out the flaws of the death penalty. The descriptions of the executions the protagonist witnesses are gruelling.

Initially I found the differing points of view and the swapping between present day, the time of the murder, and the protagonists early days at Harvard, somewhat stilted.

Overall a good read.

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC

While Femlandia was a bit of a letdown for me, I loved Q/Masterclass and Vox so was intrigued to get my hands on The Sentence. As with the author's previous books, the concept was a really interesting and unique one. The book is, as you'd expect, largely focused on the death penalty in the US and the moral dilemmas that comes with this, but offering a unique twist of the Remedies Act,

There is no doubt Christina writes incredibly well but her latest book just fell a bit flat for me. I expected more, anticipating court room drama and twists and turns as Justine fought for her freedom or even created a fresh uprising. But instead, it's more a close examination of the American justice system and I feel like there's deliberately quite a lot left unanswered, something I personally don't enjoy in a book. Perhaps I'm just lazy but it just wasn't enjoyable for me.

In a similar vein, I also didn't love the ending, I appreciate why it was done and how thought provoking the book on the whole will be for many readers, but for me, it was simply disappointing.

Having read Vox, I had an idea of what I'd be getting from Dalcher but I have to say that The Sentence was even better! Dalcher focuses on a topical issue - in this case, the death penalty - and pushes it a tiny bit further to demonstrate just how absurd and terrifying human behaviour can be.

Another novel with the thriller-like imperative to page through speedily and devour the plot that also makes the reader think 'what would I do?'. I found the characters convincing and I appreciated the ambiguity over the ending. Great read!

Smart, pinching. Dalcher wows again with another brutally sharp novel. If you’ve never read Dalcher, this is as good as place as any to begin.

I think I was expecting more from this than I thought. However was interesting to see the side and thoughts from a barrister. I think I would have wanted more but was an interesting read.

I have read the author's previous novels and enjoyed them. The premise for The Sentence interested me, the complex and moral dilemmas surrounding the death penalty. However, the narrative confused me as it did not flow efficiently and I failed to finish.

Dalcher really knows how to create an exciting premise and keep you reading.

The Sentence follows Justine, a Prosecutor who has only sentenced one man to death and by doing that she has gambled with her own life. In The Sentence, if a Prosecutor asks for the death penalty and the convicted is later found to be not guilty then it is the Prosecutor who will have to face the death penalty.

This book made me think quite a lot, I was asking myself (and those around me) questions regarding the subject matter and the topics raised and for that I would recommend this book. It does have a few pitfalls with the two story lines sometimes bleeding into one another and characters using the same phrasing / speech patterns (which wouldn't have naturally occurred) but on the whole I found this an engaging read.

gripping, addictive and completely unpredictable. I devoured this book in just one sitting. This is unique and pulled me in quickly. Well-written and able to transport the reader.

The Sentence is the first of Christina Dalcher’s books that have read and I thought that it was brilliant, such an original idea, and so very well written. Justine is a prosecutor in what appears to be an open and shut case of murder, so she requests the death penalty from the judge. When it appears at a later date that it may not have been so clear cut, Justine is so very worried, as the law on the death penalty means that if person sentenced to the death penalty is subsequently found to be innocent, the prosecution who requested the death penalty will pay with their life. This should be enough to stop any prosecutor ever requesting the death penalty, and yet it does not... Such a fascinating subject and dealt with so well.
Thanks to NetGalley the author and publisher for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed the majority of Christina Dalcher's books (especially the disturbing and brutal QI). However, I was so disappointed in Femlandia and felt it made so many missteps. I am pleased to say that Dalcher is back on form in every way in her new offering: The Sentence. An early word of warning that this book is not for the faint hearted. It is centred around the ethics of capital punishment and we witness both people being put to death and the horrific crimes which led to their sentence.

We are in a near future world where capital punishment is made legal again after being previously outlawed. The catch? If the prosecutor seeks the death penalty and put an innocent person to death, they are next to be killed. Obviously, this need to absolute certainty means that hardly anyone is ever put to death anymore. We follow Justine who is one of the rare prosecutors who has...

This is both a detailed study of the ethics surrounding capital punishment, the murky, the brutal, the outrageous, paired with more domestic thriller elements as Justine seeks the truth whilst protecting her family from harm. Whilst I found some of the graphic passages disturbing, including the ambiguous ending, I thought this was a well-structured and thought provoking novel. Dalcher has crafted a novel which will cause the reader many headaches trying to unravel the morality and twisted story at its centre. 5 stars! Bring on the next Dalcher dystopia.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fast paced and full of ethical dilemmas!

It was interesting to read some of the historic points of execution and to consider the different view points for and against.

First book I’ve read by this author but will definitely look out for more.

What an incredible concept- to punish the prosecutor should it be found that someone was wrongfully sentenced to death and that execution carried out and yet that is the world Justine lives in, a world in part of her own making from her days as a law student when she became entangled with an older student with some strong opinions and ideals and finds herself the spokesperson of the group.
Down the line she asks for the death sentence in a case, convinced of the evidence and determined for justice but at what personal cost?
A brilliant premise, well written and thought provoking.

"The Sentence" is a very different type of book to Christina Dalcher's other books (Vox, Q, Femlandia), all of which I thoroughly loved. Had this had more of a dystopian/feminist thread then I'd probably have enjoyed it more. Saying that. it is still a really good piece of writing, which does start off slow but as the plot develops, it does get you thinking.

The Sentence by Christina Dalcher
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the 3rd book I have read by Christina Dalcher, and I’m always enticed by the thought provoking nature of her books. They take on a strong female lead, dystopian by genre, very gritty and leaves you with lots to think about!
‘The sentence’ a story where a bill has been passed that a prosecutor can only ask for the Death sentence if they are certain the accused is guilty, otherwise the buck ends with the prosecutor and they are executed.
The bill is intended to prevent death sentences but is incredibly flawed.
While the premise for this story is intriguing, I didn’t love the book.
However, If you like a fast paced, dystopian type thriller based on crime and the American justice system this could be one to read.


Many thanks to HQ via NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I've read by Christina Dalcher, and I thought it was brilliant. The Sentence grapples with issues around the death penalty in the USA and prosecutorial accountability, which might not sound like a page turner, but in this context it definitely is. It's speculative in the sense that it centres around a law, the Remedies Act, which doesn't actually exist and hopefully never will, but is designed to put safeguards around the circumstances in which a prosecutor can ask for a death sentence to be imposed. Briefly, she or he is putting their own life on the line, as in the event that an executed person is later found to be innocent, the prosecutor will then face the same penalty - the intention being that the death penalty will only be requested in circumstances where there is 100% certainty of guilt.

It's a bold piece of legislation and hard to imagine happening in reality, though who knows? And of course, it's likely to go horribly wrong.

Justine - it's surely not a coincidence that her name is so close to "justice" - has campaigned against the death penalty, but, in circumstances that perhaps don't entirely ring true, has as a prosecutor being responsible for it being imposed on convicted child murderer, Jake Milford. There's no doubt about Jake's guilt. Or is there? His wife Emily is certainly convinced of his innocence, and the possibility of new evidence will present Justine with a serious dilemma.

(Speaking of moral dilemmas, it did seem odd that for ages nobody seemed to think about the possibility that *if* Jake was innocent, there was a killer still running around free and potentially presenting a serious risk to children.)

This was a great, thought provoking read with an ending which, if a little unsatisfactory, probably couldn't have been any other way. I enjoyed it very much and will definitely seek out Christina Dalcher's other books.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought that it was a different take on things because you never really see it from the point of view of the barrister. How their decision can change things for the accused, the family of the accused, the victim, the family of the victim, the barrister and for all those people who have way to many opinions about things that they really don't know about. But feel so fully that they take it to heart and then the actions that they can have and how it can effect people and the deviating effects it can have all around.

I went into this expecting a thriller and it really wasn't so that threw me a bit. I saying that, it ended up being quite a honest and brutal think piece about the death penalty. Its really well written and definitely makes you consider the implications and whether you would stake your life on it being a just conviction and such. The book is well written and puts you right in the centre of this alternative world and I was really invested in the journey and the outcome. Not my usual reading type but a really engaging read

"They'll hate me. Well, half of them will hate me. But a woman can survive hatred. Hatred doesn't kill you. Hatred isn't on the same plane as a lethal cocktail working its way through your veins or two thousand volts of electricity stopping your heart."

Okay, now I have a complicated relationship with Dalchers work, I’ve found a lot of her previous writing problematic and struggled to reconcile the masterful dystopian hellscapes she creates with some of the damnable scenes and undertones. But The Sentence is the first book of hers I can say I'd recommend.

This is a harrowing, haunting narrative that delves into the complexities of the death penalty and capital punishment, asking us to examine a flawed justice system and those who ‘play God’. It is intense and suffocating, with a deeply affective uncanny valley feeling that gives us a familiar yet entirely strange world to see.

Justine's narration was a little convoluted for me, her story being told in a non-linear way that at times made it feel like the out of order style didn’t serve a purpose but it was still mostly readable and followable, allowing us to build up an image slowly but still giving gaps for us to make our own judgements. She leaves a lot to us, leaving things unanswered, and tasking the reader to make their own opinions — so if you’re looking for some neat and tidy conclusion, this isn’t the book for you. Her discoveries and moral journey pushed this story into a distressingly raw and honest human place — full of desperation, fear and love. As we switch to the perspectives of a death row inmate, I cannot overstate the pit in my stomach and the painful emotion Dalcher wove into these characters as they forced us to confront both mortality and morality.

Every character showed us a different facet of just how complex being human is — how blurry right and wrong can sometimes be, how easily we can condemn people from afar, how easily we can fall and how people shape and change us. It delves into both the beautiful and most deranged parts of people in a terrifying vivid way that stayed with me.

A deeply provocative and uncomfortable read that probes into human nature and our relationship with death — it’s not what you’d call an enjoyable read, but certainly a memorable one.

There are books where you’d wonder what you’d do if faced with similar situations to the characters – and this is one. American states are up in arms about the death penalty – for some, the pros, for others, the cons. Then there’s prosecutor Justine Boucher who has asked for the death penalty once, the result of a horrific murder case. Due to a law, if the convicted are later found innocent, the lawyer who requested the execution will be sentenced to death. Yes, that’s right. But Justine is convinced that she did the right thing in helping to end another’s life… until evidence is presented which could change everything. Justine needs to find the truth – and fast. Along the way, we learn a lot about her background, her relationships and the decisions that she makes that do not exclusively affect her. If you loved Vox, also by Christina, then I predict you’ll love this. ‘Love’ is a difficult word to use for this novel as there’s nothing delightful about the subject matter, but it’s an intense read that has stayed with me long after I finished.

Very intriguing book. Quite an emotive subject, capital punishment.
It would be very interesting if this concept made its way into law.
Looking forward to more from Christina Dalcher.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC and opportunity to enjoy this wonderful book