The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer

The Tenth Justice Reviews

• 
  Ami

  DNF'ed at 29%
  
  At one point, Ben and Lisa's arguments went like this ...
  
  "...Second of all, even if I do go to a firm, I’ll be going for ten thousand dollars more than you will.”
  “You will not,” Lisa said.
  “I will too.”
  “Will not.”
  
  And I realized that I couldn't take it anymore. I know that this is Meltzer's first book and I commended him for being able to write this when he was still in law school. But I found the writing to be rookie-ish and lacked edge which I usually look forward to when I pick up a mystery/suspense book.
  
  I also thought characters here to be shallow and the main protagonist, Ben, to be unbelievably naive. He said about the ethics code of being Supreme Court clerk and a paragraph later he just blurted things out to someone whom he knew only via phone. Okay, I know, I know, it was there in the blurb, but I didn't think it would be THIS careless. The way he was running like chicken trying to cover things out? Yeah it didn't exactly make me sympathize with him. The banters between Ben and his friends also felt childish -- I couldn't take them seriously at all.
  
  My friend,
  Didi who recommended this to me said that someone would die in this book. Well, I guess I just didn't care. These people (including Ben) could die for their attitudes for all I care.
  
  I am sorry, Didi, guess this one didn't impressed me at all.
• 
  RM(Alwaysdaddygirl)

  2 stars. Ben got on my nerves a lot. Yes, he is academically smart. Yes, everyone screws up. Maybe because Ben is so young (one factor) is the reason for his behaviors.
  
  
  🇺🇸
• 
  Jeanne

  This book could have been so much more with a better ending. Such suspense through the entire story and then the ending was less than stellar. One thing that is very important for me is an author who knows how to close the story and this was just not there. 7 out of 10.
• 
  Mirjam

  This was my second Brad Meltzer read and it did nothing to improve my opinion of him as an author.
  The main character is unbelievably unreal, he is supposed to be this highflyer , just out of college young legal egal but has the maturity of an adolescent, his constant responce to just about everything is.... i don`t want to hear it/ i don`t want to talk about it....
  The conversation between the 4 friends is haltingly, hackingly written without a natural flow.
  Mr. Meltzer has been likened to John Grisham by some but i think that is an insult to Mr. Grisham.
  Interestingly it did remind me of Mr. Grishams writing, a name like Frisk reminded me of Ranken Fitz in one of Mr. Grishams novels, frankly, i though the whole book was a jumble of concepts borrowed from the Grisham novels and rehashed in a very amateurish way.
  I`ll be looking elsewhere for a good courtroom read.
• 
  Sarah

  I enjoyed the plot of this book because I worked as a law clerk after finishing law school. The themes hit close to home. It was a good, fast read, though somewhat predictable. My main complaint is that the style is just super cheesy---very Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew---simple language; lame dialogue. I've started The Millionaires and it seems even worse haha.
• 
  Mike Adamchuk

  Newly appointed Supreme Court law clerk Ben Addison leaks information about an upcoming decision to someone he doesn't know. As the story progresses, he and his buddies do more stupid things in their effort to find out who has the information and what they are gong to do with it. Shallow characters and weak starting premise.
• 
  Tim

  By a large margin, the ending is the best part of this story. 4 of 10 stars
• 
  Una Tiers

  The books begins with an inviting premise, an innocent, if particularly stupid mistake. Then it unravels into shallow characters, obnoxious eye rolling dialogue and took me to a point where I didn't care about the outcome.
• 
  Alan Mills

  Ben has a dream job: Supreme Court clerk. During his first days on the job, Rick, one of the Justice's former clerks, gives en a call and offers advice on navigating a clerk's overwhelming workload. After several weeks of these calls, they meet for lunch, during which they continue to discuss court business, including the status of an upcoming decision. But it turns out that these conversations have not been innocent. After one of the parties makes millions by "guessing" the outcome of the case Ben discussed with Rick, Ben discovers that Rick has disappeared.
  
  This is the point at which Meltzer asks the reader to take a giant leap into unreality. Rather than going to the Justice and confessing what happened, Ben--a supposedly super-smart guy, decides he would be better off trying to find Rick and somehow entrap him. But, once the reader makes that leap, then the story is off and running full speed for another 300 pages. This is the core of the book, and would rate a five star review. BUT...
  
  Meltzer decides he needs to add one more plot twist. I felt this was one twist too far. Unlikely scenes and characters keep getting added to the plot, one after another, each more unbelievable than the last. It felt like some editor told Meltzer he needed a longer book, so he added a so-so short story onto the end of a great thriller.
  
  In the end, it is still a great book. well worth reading. I just felt let down by the ending.
• 
  LJ

  THE TENTH JUSTICE - DNF
  Meltzer, Brad - 1st book
  
  A Washington-based thriller about four ambitious twenty-something housemates, fresh out of college and eager to make their mark in their careers. When one of them, Ben Addison, is tricked into leaking a Supreme Court decision on a corporate merger in advance, he lands them all in big trouble.
  
  I found the protagonist just TSTL (too stupid to live) and could not even finish the book.
• 
  Erth

  Bravo! A good fast read! now i am hooked. This was such a great, easy and creative book. i was hooked after the first page.
  
  The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.
  
  i would highly recommend this author and this book.
• 
  Barb

  Wow, what a story this turned out to be! I’m not sure how realistic it might be, but to those of us not involved in the legal world surrounding the US Supreme Court, it seemed like it could possibly happen if all the stars aligned correctly. Once the action picked up, I wasn’t able to turn off my audio player to put the book aside – I had to keep listening until I reached the end of the story.
  
  Although I really like the author and his writing style, I’m not a fan of information being withheld from the reader, only to be revealed during the wrap-up at the end of the book. If I had known what some of the characters knew, I may have been able to figure things out too, but then the book wouldn’t have been as exciting as it was. That said, I'll definitely read more of Meltzer's books - they're too good to skip them :)
• 
  Allison Hawkins

  Randomly selected this book on my audiobook app because it takes place in DC and I thought the plot had potential. Unfortunately I was wrong 😑 I disliked every single character and was not rooting for anyone. They all made dumb mistakes and decisions left and right and I was so annoyed with every single one of them. It was so long (14 hours for what?!) and the plot “twisted” so many times in the most confusing and unnecessary ways… but for some reason I kept going thinking it would get better. Also, there was transition music in between chapters??? Huhhhh what is the point of that. Bummed this was my last book of the year, here’s to actually reading the synopsis in 2023🎧
• 
  Sandie

  This book was so bad that I doubt very much I will ever get the motivation to read one written later in his career. Why did I feel the need to finish it?
• 
  Adam Schmidt

  What to say about this book. It's a horrible book. Not a self-published level of horrible, but a pretty bad one.
  
  There’s so much to go over that I'm really just going to hit the highlights.
  
  The way this book is written makes you wonder if the author knows how human beings generally interact with one another, and also how normal people make decisions.
  
  Most dialog in the book reads as though it was uttered by a fraternity bro. It's just constant "ribbing," to the point of complete absurdity and inappropriateness. Maybe I'm off here, but I'm pretty sure a male-female team who just started working at the US Supreme Court don't start talking about their sex history on Day 1, or launch straight into flirty sexual innuendos. Also, personally, if I meet the friend of a friend for the first time, I don't start a stream of non-stop insults 2 sentences into the moment. But maybe that's me. Maybe I'm a prude. One thing's for sure, though, it's all pretty normal for Brad Meltzer.
  
  That segues nice into the fact that all the characters in this book are so hateable. They make the dumbest decisions on the planet (this book could have ended at various points either 20, or maybe 40, pages in if it's characters had any common sense at all). Also, the general things they say to each other are just outright vile, especially when it comes to the group of absurdly devoted "sitcom friends" the author churned up.
  
  There's an entire thread of the story that serves no purpose at all. (The law firm trying hard to recruit Ben.)
  
  There's a million deliberate red herrings that the author leaves for the reader to the point where I felt very manipulated.
  
  The title (a reference to the influence of a Supreme Court law clerk) has basically nothing to do with the content of the book, because the book is 100% a side story outside of the Supreme Court. Aside from the beginning, there's very little in the way of legal plotwork in here at all.
  
  That's the gist of it. I'm skipping over a lot of other nonsense but the main problems here are the characters and how they behave. Not that the book would be great anyway, but their idiocy definitely overwhelms all the other faults.
• 
  Mark Louderback

  I actually read some of the Graphic Novels that Mr Meltzer before reading this book. It is because of his reading his comic books that I wanted to read his novels. In many ways I was not disappointed at all — his dialogue is terrific. I can see how he easily makes the transition to graphic novels. He has an ear for dialogue.
  
  In addition, the plot is fairly tight. It snakes up on you and the various acts in the book (it most clearly is divided into a three part novel) are terrific.
  
  So, why only three stars?
  
  Spoilers:
  
  Brad has a character commit suicide. It makes sense, I understand plot-wise why he does it, but I had a visceral reaction to it. It soured the rest of the novel. I know that much of the story is not about the plot at hand, but about the four friends, but still, killing off the character was pretty sickening for me. It made the finale hard to read. I know that this is just a decision that the author made and I know that it fits into the plot — but I didn't like it. I flat didn't like it and it made the book less enjoyable.
• 
  Wenzel Roessler

  I really wanted to give this book a better rating because there was so much of it I enjoyed. I like the premise, I like the characters, I love Ober, and there were some very intense parts of the book. But there was no consistency to the story or to how the characters related to each other. Here is how the book flowed to me. First you hear, "Leave me alone I do not need your help." Second you hear, "How come you are not helping me," then "I do not want to hear it." Over and over and over. Also it feels the author had some really good ideas and the book felt like just bridges between the ideas and the overall story suffered because of it. I know I am saying quite a bit of negative but I really did enjoy this and I felt with a bit of work this could have been an excellent (rather than a very good) book.
• 
  Don

  Inelegant writing, unrealistic dialog, and shallow and unlikeable characters. I gave up about a third of the way in.
• 
  Mr. Gottshalk

  I can’t believe I devoted so much time to a stinker of a story. Where to start...the writing is immature, he dialogue is exhausting, and the book is suffering from a lack of editing, but besides that...
  I had often wondered about the clerks and people who are the puppet masters for Supreme Court Justices. This story gets off the rails quickly when a clerk can’t keep his mouth shut, and divulges important information. The rest of the story just goes around and around...
• 
  Margot Peter

  Entertaining but implausible, and Ben is self absorbed and very annoying.
• 
  Lynn

  Meltzer must have an uncle in the publishing business.
• 
  em

  This was like some stress-fueled fever dream I’d have after exams. 🤨 At a loss for words right now.
• 
  Terry Lee

  To me, it was an episode of "Friends" being blackmailed. Serious but with a comedic touch.
• 
  ReadingAllNight

  Overall I enjoyed this . It was fast paced and for me at least it was quite the page turner. When I first started it, I didn't realize it was his first novel. I went just on the fact that the summary sounded like something I would enjoy. After realizing though, I can tell it is a first novel. Certain aspects of the novel are not as overly polished and a few plot points seem way too convenient, which is my main issue with the novel in general. Several plot points throughout the story are exciting while reading and then when I was finished and had time to mull them over, several events didn't really make sense or add up. I more than fine reading books where I can turn off my brain for awhile. Where it is a book that doesn't have any big meaning it needs to get across or impact to make. A book that that is just supposed to be entertainment for awhile. Even so there is a line a book crosses where even though it is enjoyable, and I did actually enjoy this book, the characters or the writing throw common sense out the window. A few times here and there is not an issue . Hell real people even with the best of intentions do it from time to time. We are all human and just even though we knew better we still fuck up. I can give benefit of the doubt to a few things, but when you add all the infractions together is when I start to have an issue.
  For instance I can forgiven the first common sense abuse since in summary on the back cover, I knew going in that Ben fucked up by telling a court decision to someone he shouldn't. I can sort of buy that he let excitement of the position go to his head even though he probably signed a million legal documents stating what you can or can not say to family and friends.That and even though he shouldn't trust some random person that called, he got wrapped up in the moment and blabbed. Fine ok. Things I have more issue is that even though Ben and a few others are sure that the house may be bugged they continue to say things they shouldn't and then are shocked when things get out. Get that moving to different places every time they thought the place might be bugged is a bit obsessive , but don't get why they couldn't have stayed in the house and just been more careful about what they said. I do get having characters pass notes could get a tad clunky to read instead of spoken dialogue. Even so they could have developed a code. Just something.
  Honestly too just thought there were too many twists in this. I don't have an issue with books that have twists in them. They can be fun to guess along with but do feel there should be either one big twist that is revealed toward the en or if there are a few, that they are used with a purpose in mind and that there are not so many that they start to clutter the story. This book for me falls into the latter category. I do think the twists were trying to serve a purpose but overall they came off as a mess. For instance one of the twists that just felt personally unnecessary and just didn't make sense is that it is revealed that one of the men working for Rick, the villain of the story, is actually a marshal trying to help Ben. What doesn't make sense to me is that he is supposed to an one of the higher ups for one of the companies whose law suits to Court is deciding. on. Just would think it would be somewhat public knowledge of what someone higher up would look like. So am confused why Rick was fooled by this. It just came off as a way to get someone close to Rick who could save Ben toward the end of the book. I was also not the biggest fan of Eric being a double agent. Not saying am not a fan of the concept and believe it can be done well, just feel in this book it was executed poorly.
  The end of the book was the other issue for me. It felt slightly lack luster. Things are not totally wrapped up nicely since there are thankfully consequences for what happened. Still felt overall things turned out mostly ok. Rick has his typical villain moments where he threatens to kill someone but never acts on it by instead letting everyone live and just beats them. Though am a bit shocked that he got to live at the end given how so much media loves killing villains. He was overall an ok villain but for sure could have been better. Ben does lose his job, as he should . Course he has a way better one by the end of the novel so he still wins out in the end. Nathan is pissed with good reason given that because of Ben's actions one of their friends committed suicide . A detail that seems to really matter in the moment but only Nathan seems to feel any real mourning over. That and the fact that the mother of said friend is so possessive and obsessive over her son's life that in one scene she is jumping down her son's throat to get back the job he is fired from and yet is not beating down the roommates door to explain why her son is dead, which really makes no sense. That and just a personal pet peeve of having the book end with the unnecessary romance angle. I am not against romance being in any sort of book but I am against forced romance and for sure felt that the romance between Ben is and Lisa is so damn forced . It was unneeded and personally had Ben not fucked up by spilling the beans about the case outcome both of them would have been fired or least spoken to about their romance. Having the book end on that aspect was just super cringy. Would have honestly preferred if it turned out that Lisa was a lesbian as one of the guys thought in the beginning. Granted still would have had issued given that their assumptions are based on old stereotypes. More though would just preferred if the romance was just not part of the novel to begin with.