"Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turns out the two aren't that different."
That line from the description sold me. And honestly? The audiobook delivers on exactly that promise - a protagonist who lies for a living and now has to lie harder than he ever has because his daughter's life depends on it. I was shelving returns at the library on a slow Thursday afternoon, earbuds in, and I caught myself standing completely still in the 364s (criminology section, naturally) because Eddie had just pulled a move so audacious I forgot I was holding a stack of James Patterson novels. The irony was not lost on me.
A Con Artist in a Courtroom Is Just Horror with Objections
Look, this isn't horror. I know. But Steve Cavanagh understands something that most legal thriller writers don't: the best tension comes from watching someone operate with zero margin for error. Eddie Flynn has forty-eight hours. His daughter is kidnapped. The Russian mob is watching his every move. And he has to defend a murder case he knows nothing about while simultaneously trying to outsmart people who will kill a child without blinking. That's dread. That's the same engine that drives the best horror - the slow tightening of a noose while the protagonist scrambles.
Cavanagh's background as a Belfast lawyer shows. The courtroom sequences don't feel like TV-courtroom nonsense where someone shouts "I object!" and the judge gasps. These feel like chess. Dirty, desperate chess where Eddie's using every grift and con he learned on the streets to manipulate witnesses, jurors, and the system itself. The mechanics of how he plants evidence, redirects attention, runs a con INSIDE a courtroom - that's the good stuff. That's what makes this book its own thing rather than another Grisham clone.
But here's where I have to be honest. Around the middle stretch - and I've seen other listeners say this too - the momentum dips. The setup is white-knuckle, the finale is genuinely propulsive, but there's a section in the middle where the book catches its breath a little too long. I didn't lose interest, but I did notice my pace picking up, like I was waiting for the engine to kick back in. It does. But it takes its time.
Adam Sims Understands That Eddie Flynn Is Barely Holding It Together
The narrator commits. That's rare.
Adam Sims plays Eddie with this hardboiled confidence that's always - always - one layer away from desperation. That's the trick of this character. Eddie sounds like the smartest guy in the room, but Sims lets you hear the cracks. The slight strain when Eddie's bluffing and he knows the stakes are lethal. The way his voice tightens when his daughter comes up. It's not showy acting. It's the kind of performance where you forget someone is reading to you and instead feel like you're eavesdropping on a man's worst forty-eight hours.
Now, I've seen one complaint that Eddie sounds "whiney," and I get it - I can see how that desperate edge might read as whining to someone who wanted a pure tough-guy performance. But I think that misses the point. Eddie IS whining, sometimes. He's terrified. He's a father whose kid might die. Sims doesn't let him be cool about that, and I respect the choice even if it means Eddie isn't always likable.
One thing worth noting: Sims is British narrating an American character, and he nails it. The accent never slips in a way that pulled me out. His Eddie sounds like a New York guy who grew up rough and taught himself to sound polished - which is exactly who Eddie is.
Who Gets the Most Out of This
If you like legal thrillers where the protagonist isn't just smart but actively criminal in their methods - where the line between defense attorney and con artist genuinely blurs - this is your book. If you need your protagonists squeaky clean, skip it. If slow middle sections are dealbreakers for you, maybe wait for a sale. But if you can ride through that valley, the payoff lands.
This is also book one of a series, and knowing Cavanagh went on to win the CWA Gold Dagger and multiple other awards with later Eddie Flynn books tells me the foundation here pays off. I'm already queuing up the next one. Though I'll say — the same-genre comparison that kept nagging at me was Long Way Home, another series entry where the weight of what a protagonist is carrying personally bleeds into every procedural beat, and the tension is quieter but just as relentless.
Shirley (my cat) was unimpressed. I was too busy standing motionless in the criminology aisle to care. My podcast listeners are going to love this - not because it's horror, but because Cavanagh understands that the best thrillers and the best horror run on the same fuel: watching someone trapped, watching them fight, and not knowing if they'll make it out.
