Only one question matters: did he do it? Juror decide.
Place: The Central Criminal Court
Trial date: July 2017, day 29
Case: A young black man stands accused of murdering another young black man. He has pleaded not guilty, sworn his innocence. All that matters now, Juror, is this: do you believe him?
You are a juror, sitting in the Central Criminal Court before the Honourable Judge. The case of the young man has been going on for nearly a month. All the overwhelming evidence has been heard, all the witnesses have said their piece, the QC for the Prosecution has given his closing speech. The only thing left is for the QC for the Defence to give his closing speech. But a surprise awaits.
And it’s a proper surprise. As You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood begins, we hear the voice of the un-named defendant. He tells the jury, judge and reader how he’s decided to sack his counsel and give the closing speech himself. He explains that his QC wants to give the jury a story they can believe; the truth is second to that. But he doesn’t want that. He feels he can do better by telling the unvarnished truth.
Initially he does well. He lines up all the damning evidence and proceeds to debunk it. For example:
- The fact that his phone was found in the same area as the dead man’s phone. So, what? So were the phones of thousands of others.
- The fact that the killer was seen wearing a distinctive hoodie, which was later found in the accused’s flat. So, what? These hoodies were made in China for the cheaper end of the English market, sold in markets everywhere and mostly worn by young black men.
- The fact that he was heard saying ‘Waste man’ to JC, the victim and a vicious young drug pusher, who mostly plied his trade at the school gates. ‘Waste man’ in the patois of the area does not mean ‘I will waste you, man’. It means ‘You are a waste, man’.
Things falter when he gets to pieces of evidence which are less easy to dismiss and when he admits that, to explain, he needs to tell a story. So, with the judge’s permission, he starts to tell the story of his life. How he grew up in a gang- and drug-ridden part of South London; how he kept himself free of drugs and of the gangs and got himself a decent job; and how he fell in love with the clever, well-read and ambitious Kyra.
In the beginning the pair of them had done well, until Kyra’s druggie brother, in prison and in fear for his own life, sold her to the gangs. Before you could blink, she’d been taken and put out to prostitution. He’d searched and found her but the gangs wanted her back. And repeatedly, as the young couple tried to find ways to avoid them, our man encountered JC, who made it plain that he was prepared to sell Kyra back to the gangs. The ending is a jaw-dropping surprise.
My verdict
This is a highly unusual book. The only voice we hear is that of the accused and it’s quite an effective ploy. It certainly makes you pay attention while you try to evaluate the validity of what he’s saying. The fact that he has no name is also intriguing, as is the language, which is what I assume is the language of South London young blacks. It takes a little getting used to, but it grows on you. The story is incredibly violent and quite upsetting. The (to us) almost invisible sub-culture of gangs – teenage and adult – is scary. As is the drug pushing.
The book ends abruptly with the last sentence of the defendant’s speech, and the jury withdrawing to consider the evidence. So it really is up to each individual reader to decide. Having said that, the way the Imran Mahmood portrays the defendant as a clever and sympathetic person made me lean towards the ‘not guilty’ verdict.
I really liked You Don’t Know Me although I quite see it won’t be for everyone. In crime fiction we’re used to having the solution presented to us at the end with the mystery neatly tied up. Not so here. I give it 4 stars and it only just escapes a higher score because, towards the end, I actually longed to hear another voice.
Review by: Freyja
P.S. Imran Mahmood is a criminal QC (now of course KC) working in London. There’s a long chapter at the end where he describes his feelings about many of his clients, which led him to write this book. He’s since written another three thrillers.
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