Final Witness has the slightly awkward tone of a first novel, the situation is cliched, and both the main characters and potentially intriguing secondary characters are insufficiently developed. Nonetheless, I was sufficiently intrigued by it that I missed my stop while reading it on the way to work. Tolkein says in his interview that he tried to limit details about the courtroom process, but as someone who works in the legal field I would actually have liked to learn more about British trial procedures.

Final Witness wasn't up to the level of P.D. James, Ruth Rendell or Charles Todd, but it was definitely worth the short time spent reading it. I look forward to Tolkein's next legal thriller, particularly if features characters with more psychological depth.