Daisy in Chains // by Sharon Bolton

//published 2016//

This is one of those books that cropped up on my radar not once, but multiple times.  You should definitely check out the reviews by CleopatraLovesBooks, FictionFan, and Fictionophile.  All three of them raved about this book, and I have to say that it lived up to the hype!

Hamish Wolfe is in prison, convicted of murdering several young women.  Hamish has never admitted his guilt, and his mother has started a support group to try and help him be released.  They want his appeal to be taken on by Maggie Rose, a defense attorney who also writes true-crime novels about the cases she takes on.

I don’t really know what I was expecting when I started this book, but it wasn’t what I got.  I think I had in mind a regular crime novel, like the Amanda Jaffe books I just read by Phillip Margolin – a fairly straightforward tale in which there is a crime, a criminal, and an attorney seeking justice.  Instead I ended up with an incredibly intriguing and twisty tale and no clear indication as to who the good guys and bad guys really were.

The format of the book is also excellent.  There are chapters of straightforward third-person narrative, but also letters, newspaper clippings, and rough drafts from Maggie’s latest book.  The chapters are all short and snappy, so easy to tell myself that I would read just one more… and then maybe one more!

I really don’t want to say too much about this book.  All the characters are so well drawn – not just Hamish and Maggie, but also Pete, the detective whose career was made by convicting Hamish, and a whole host of secondary characters.  At no point was I ever convinced that I knew exactly who any of those characters really were – it was obvious that everyone had something to hide.  And while I did guess a couple of the twists, I was still blown away by the incredibly crafty and satisfying ending.

This is my first Sharon Bolton book, but it definitely won’t be my last.  5/5 and highly recommended.