Everyone has made mistakes, some mistakes can be corrected, some mistakes are insignificant and can be laughed off.
What if your choices directly determine a person's life and freedom?
Even more frightening than making a mistake is the refusal to admit that you have made a mistake.
The novel "Conspiracy with Her", which Ah Xin wants to recommend today, revolves around a "mistake".
The 12 protagonists in the story, who together acquitted the defendants in a murder case ten years ago. However, almost everyone agrees that their decision was wrong.
Ten years later, they are still haunted by this unknown "mistake" until, another murder occurs before them.
Graham Moore, author of "Conspiracy with Her," won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Imitation Game." He is also a writer of suspense novels, and the novel "Conspiring with Her" is a best-selling and acclaimed in many countries.
Graham Moore
Ah Xin has recommended many suspense novels, today's book is not necessarily how thrilling, but the sense of reading is absolutely refreshing, line by line text is like a fast-paced movie, the sense of picture is overwhelming.
Unruly text messages, falsified alibis, murders without corpses, twelve people with their own agendas, two murders after ten years...
The letter, which had been read twice, could guarantee that the phrase "reverse until the last ten pages" on the waist seal was definitely not an exaggeration.
Ten years later, two murders
The narrative of "Conspiracy with Her" is characterized by two parallel timelines, the murder of ten years ago and the murder of ten years later advancing at the same time, and the more you read it, the more confusing it becomes.
Ten years ago, Jessica, the only daughter of los Angeles' richest man, who was only fifteen years old, disappeared. Her teacher, Bobby, a black male in his twenties, became the number one suspect.
Twelve citizens were selected to be members of the jury in the case, and Maya Hill was among them.
People who believe Bobby is guilty have good reasons: Bobby, a teacher, and Jessica, a young girl, have sent sexually suggestive text messages, Jessica's blood was found in the trunk of Bobby's car, and Bobby lied about his own actions on the day of the crime.
But those who insist on Bobby's innocence argue equally: the police have never found Jessica's body.
At the first internal vote of the jury, 11 people believed that Bobby was guilty, 1 person believed that Bobby was not guilty, and the only person was Maya.
At Maya's insistence, the other 11 people were persuaded one by one, and together they handed down the acquittal.
However, none of them expected such a big controversy over their verdict.
After the quarantine ended, Maya learned that 84 percent of Americans believed Bobby Knock was the killer, which meant that 84 percent of Americans thought the Maya had let go of a murderer who had killed a teenage girl.
The twelve men on the jury, dubbed "the 12 stupidest people in America" by the media and the general public, became "infamous", fired, sidelined, thrown bricks...
Ten years later, the storm seems to have passed, but some people are still trapped in obsession.
Double timeline, with murder stories from ten years later at the top and 12 people from ten years ago below
A show called "Murder Town" decided to make a documentary that would reunite the members of the jury and look back at the case: Ten years later, do they still think their decision was the right one?
Rick, who fell in love with Maya during the jury and later turned against the verdict, is an active promoter of the reunion, claiming that he has investigated for ten years and found ironclad evidence that Bobby killed Jessica, which will be shown to everyone on the show.
However, on the night of the reunion, Rick was found dead in maya's hotel room.
All the evidence suggests that Maya is the murderer...
Ten years ago, everyone was persuaded by the Maya to vote "not guilty." However, are they really making decisions for the sake of justice?
Lyra, who is easily persuaded, Carolina, who is eighty-two years old, Carl, who loves to read detective novels, and Wayne, who has "post-traumatic stress disorder"...
Behind the seeming justice, everyone has secrets.
And ten years later, in the face of their slain companion Rick, reunited they need to make another decision...
Is it the truth that people crave?
Can one person convict another person? Every time you make a choice, how do you ensure that you are always the party of "justice"?
This question was deeply explored as early as the classic 1957 film "Twelve Angry Men", in which a teenager was suspected of killing his father and 12 jurors had to judge whether the teenager was guilty.
In the film, only Juror No. 8 initially found the juvenile innocent, and the other 11 jurors all found the juvenile guilty. Juror No. 8 was not afraid of danger and finally persuaded all the jurors to acquit the teenager.
The story of "Conspiring with Her" is similar to this classic film, but in addition to exploring what justice is, the author goes one step further and shows the darkness and madness of human nature.
In the novel, There are 12 people, including Maya, whether ten years ago or ten years later, each with their own agendas.
As jurors, they are both voting for justice, but on the other hand, their decisions are also about the secrets they want to hide and the people they want to protect.
In the two-line narrative, the timeline from ten years ago, gives the perspective of twelve people who have very different attitudes towards the murder.
Teresa never felt that her vote represented the truth:
But no one knows the script, no one knows their lines, and the longer this play is performed, the more people's lives will be involved in this delusion. So, go to his 'and listen to the next breakdown', go to his 'What will this affect everyone'. Teresa would rather let the 'guilty' person go free (it doesn't even matter what the word means anymore) than continue acting and pretending to be able to see the truth.
In arguing whether Bobby is guilty or not, Yasmine sees other jurors as distorted:
The subtle hypocrisy in the tone, the false fairness of the mouth 'just to clarify the facts', the occasional inconsistencies and the use of words that are not at the right time.
And Maya, who is closest to the truth, whether ten years ago or ten years later, she chose silence:
The life in Maya's hands—the life she had in her hands—the life she had in her silence and complicity—was twice as much.
Exactly what is the truth, who is right and who is wrong, until the last ten pages of the novel, everything is full of doubts.
The author throws out another thought-provoking question in the novel: Is the truth that people crave?
Jessica's father, Maya, Rick, the other jurors, and the media and the public, all have an obsession — "Are you really still convinced that your judgment from ten years ago was correct?" ”
Lines from The Twelve Angry Men
However, many things, after arguing for too long, may not matter the outcome of the argument - the only thing that can provide comfort is not to prove that you are right, but to show that you were right from the very beginning, and that is what the public really wants.
Every day, people wake up eagerly hoping that the headlines will clearly prove that one side of them is good and the other side is absolutely evil.
The only thing she wants to say is worse than making a mistake is a bottomless desire to prove that she never made a mistake.
The author draws his conclusion through the mouth of the protagonist Maya.
Oscar-winning screenwriter, real-life experience-inspired suspense novel
Author Graham Moore won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Imitation Game", and then turned to the screenwriter to try to be a director, handing over a well-known film "The Outfit".
In terms of writer status, his other novel work,"The First Light, The Last Darkness", has a 8.7 rating on Douban and is listed as the Douban Annual Suspense Novel of the year.
"The First Light, the Last Darkness"
By Graham Moore
Aug. 2017 CITIC Publishing Dafang
It can be seen that whether it is the creation of film scripts or literary novels, Graham Moore is a good hand at storytelling.
And his technique of film narrative is also applied to his novel works.
This kind of unbearable "showmanship" makes the novel "Conspiracy with Her" read with full picture, like a lively American drama.
Stills from The Imitation Game
Graham Moore was inspired by a real-life experience of his own: his persistence led to a man's life in prison. "What if I'm wrong", under the confusion that cannot be dispelled, "Conspiracy with Her" was born.
The question of "what if I am wrong" is not only the author's interrogation of himself, but also the heart knot of the protagonist Maya in the novel, and it is also a warning to the reader of this novel.
Publishers Weekly commented: "This outstanding novel sharply tried the American judicial system, media surveillance and racism, setting a new standard for legal suspense novels." ”
Perhaps this question is answered at the beginning of the novel.
At the beginning of the first chapter, Maya stands above the courtroom, but at this moment she is not maya, the juror, but the lawyer Maya—after the trial ten years ago, Maya chose to go to law school and become a lawyer.
In this city, people kill people every day, people are raped every hour, people steal things every minute. The police were busy arresting people everywhere, some of them innocent and some of them not.
What can you do as a citizen? Stand by and watch? Absolutely not.
Maya chose to become a lawyer not to revisit the trial endlessly, but to embrace and reconcile with the most difficult, painful, and memorable scenes of her life.
She had left the old Maya in that courtroom, and she was now another person.