Excellent legal drama. Tom Mannion is a senior clerk in Chambers and a disagreeable and controlling character. Despite this, he is highly respected and has his finger tightly on the legal pulse.

On an evening out with his junior clerk, Tom divulges that the secret behind much of his success is a little black notebook in which he records the deepest, darkest secrets of both his friends and enemies.

When Tom is subsequently found dead in a nearby alleyway, his notebook is missing and suspicion immediately falls on his junior clerk who seemed to have the most to gain by Tom's death.

But is he the guilty party or is it one of Tom's legion of enemies........ Kept me guessing until the very end which, for me is the mark of a really good thriller.

Because of their specialist settings, legal thrillers can be hard to pull off – but here is an author who puts her knowledge of criminal law and her professional experience as a barrister to good use to achieve just that. That she manages to set her thriller so expertly in recognisably contemporary settings, thereby creating a fascinating new protagonist, just heightens my admiration. This protagonist is a young barrister from a working-class Caribbean background by the name of Lee Mitchell, who has worked hard to establish herself in the legal profession. The crime she investigates is the murder of the odious, most senior clerk at her Chambers. I found myself turning the pages of this novel faster and faster as the investigation continued – not necessarily to find out how the novel would end, but to rather to find out more about Lee Mitchell and her motivations for a legal career. Highly recommended reading material – and I am grateful to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free digital ARC that allowed me to familiarise myself with Nicola Williams’ work.

When senior clerk Tom Mannon is found dead in an alley suspicion falls on junior clerk Dean. They had both been drinking together at a London club. The diary in which Tom wrote details about his colleagues private lives, is missing. This is a very well-written and superbly plotted legal thriller that raises issues of race and class. There is a diverse cast of believable characters. The author uses her knowledge of the legal system to add authenticity to the story. I did not realize that this is the second novel featuring barrister Lee Mitchell. I now look forward to reading more in this series.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

When Tom Mannon, the senior clerk of Maple Street Chambers is found murdered in an alleyway the finger of suspicion points at Dean the junior clerk he'd been drinking with in a private members club shortly before.

High stakes, high drama and murder mystery all rolled into one with some interesting characters. Killer Instinct is well plotted legal thriller that started slow for me but stepped up a gear as it entered the courtroom, the lively exchanges between prosecution and defence elevating it to a dramatic thriller as it reached its conclusion.

My thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for the early read, all opinions expressed are my own

Absolutely enjoyed reading this legal thriller. I love a good courtroom drama, add a murder and it is right on top of my list.

I love how the book sets up the characters and the victim to give a better insight. The book is told from multiple perspectives and you get a feel of the characters before the action starts.

I love how the book keeps one guessing and the element of the case being fought in parallel. An interesting premise and suspicious characters filled with ambitions. Recommend!

Thank you Penguin General UK and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

This was a great thriller! Took me some time to get into, but I found the narrator's character compelling and complex and genuinely enjoyed the twists and complexities the story took me on. Once I got into it I couldn't put it down. Would recommend and read again!

A really great story where you are left trying to work out what has gone wrong, who is to blame, whilst also feeling empathy for many of the characters along the way...

Read this not realising there was a previous book however it wasn’t a problem.
A lot of people to remember and I had to double check at the start who was who.
If you are a legal thriller fan this would be a great read for you.
Thank you NetGalley, Penguin & Nicola Williams for an advanced copy of this killer book.

I don’t often award Netgalley books five stars but this certainly deserves it. The senior clerk, Tom, in a well regarded London legal Chambers has an argument in public at a charity event then he takes his number two, Dean,out for a drink. Dean leaves before him. Then Tom is found dead, maybe murdered, but there is no certainty about that conclusion. The person Tom had the public argument is a well known name and the police are discouraged from interviewing him. Dean stood to benefit from getting the senior position in the chambers, now vacant and he is arrested for manslaughter on thin evidence. The case goes to trial with Dean being defended by one of his colleagues.. The story is not as simple as that summary sounds and there are many other side stories about relationships and families, all supporting the central theme. It is pretty easy to guess that Dean is not going to be convicted- that would be too easy! But the reader is left to guess what will happen to change the outcome at the last minute. This is a very good read and I recommend it.

Thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for ARC.

This thriller centres on barrister Lee Mitchell's chambers, with the murder of. their senior Clerk and the arrest of his deputy for his murder. I enjoyed this overall, although it rather stretched me to believe absolutely everyone in chambers, and a lot beyond, had so many secrets they would go to great lengths to protect. The courtroom scenes are gripping, and although this read well as a standalone, I've sought out the first book in this series.

This book is absolutely brilliant. The plot and characters were very well written. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

This book is part of a series, but can be read as a standalone which is what I did as this is a new author to me. An interesting story with many of twists and turns, I found this book to be compelling. I really enjoyed it, and found it gripping and well-written.

I was attracted by the blurb (I hadn't realised Lee Mitchell had been in previous book) despite my disinclination to read court-case fiction (I even skipped over parts of To Kill a Mockingbird!!) .. but despite that I enjoyed the set up, and the look-in to Chambers' politics. The set up of toxic male (the one who's killed) and clever, put-upon female colleague worried me at first because it's all so filled with cliche .. but it was over taken by author's smarts in making characters very real. There were, however, for me , too many to keep good track of. I enjoyed the denouement! Maybe this author will continue this series!! Recommendable, that's for sure ...

This was an interesting story with lots of twists and turns that made the whole story very thrilling to read. Although there is a first book in this series which I have not read, this one can still be ready as a stand alone.
I would definitely look into reading the first book.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House for the early ARC to read and review this book and give my honest opinion. Thanks to Netgalley for making this possible.

fabulous read! I attended an event recently and met someone who'd read an earlier book by this author. We both agreed that Nicola Williams is a natural story-teller. This was a fantastically plotted novel with a whole host of brilliant characters. It felt completely authentic and was just an absolutely great read. Thank you so much!

After reading the blub, I was looking forward to getting into this one, but I've got mixed feelings after reading.
I enjoyed parts of it, but at times, it felt like the story was padded out just a bit too much.
I do like Lee Mitchell, you cant help but like the underdog,and I would look forward to seeing her character grow in further books.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK for the Arc.

This is another brilliant book about the barrister Lee Mitchell and her friends and colleagues. Tom, the Head Clerk in her chambers is found dead, amid rumours that he kept a secret diary about all his colleagues. The story has police procedure, a gripping court case, high stakes office politics, and a dilemma for Lee as her friend is involved with one of the suspects.
It shows how frighteningly easy it is to be charged with a combination of prejudice and connections, and also demonstrates the way justice is applied differently between the wealthy and the working class.
Excellent. Highly recommended.

This book wasn't for me. I found this book quite unoriginal. From the blurb, it sounded like it would have a good plot, but I found it flat and felt like most of the themes had been covered before. A member of Chambers who is not popular is found dead in an alley after a work event and visit to private club. One suspect had an altercation with him in public but is rich so not an immediate suspect. Another has an incredible job at age 24, coming from a less wealthy background. The main Barrister is a hot shot of course. The dead man had a diary with things he had found out about colleagues etc. and the diary goes missing after his death. There are quite a few characters to keep track of, including 2 dads with disabled sons and we hear about their relationships with their sons which seems confusing for most of the story.
I do hope the book finds its audience. I did read it til the end so it wasn't badly written, so I'm sure there will be those who enjoy it.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

When I requested this from Netgalley I was immediately drawn in by the storyline however I didn't realise at the time it was the second book in the Lee Mitchell series. I don't normally like joining a series without reading them in order and I think I did miss out a little bit from not reading the first one.

Having said that, this was a really enjoyable legal thriller. When a Senior Clerk is found dead outside a fancy members-only bar, there is dubiety of whether he fell or was murdered. Dean, the Junior Clerk from a working-class background, was the last person to be with the victim and pressure is put on the Police to arrest and charge him despite his repeated denials.

What follows is a legal trial which was the best part of the novel. Dean is defended by Lee Mitchell and untangles deception and intrigue on a number of levels. Whilst there are a LOT of characters in this book, which I sometimes struggled to keep up with, the book moves towards a brilliant conclusion with significant fall-out.

Definitely a series I will be keen to follow up on.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book sadly wasn’t my cup of tea. Too many characters which made it tricky to keep up with exactly what was happening, and an assumption of n knowledge about the behind the scenes part of the legal system which left me a little frustrated.