After reading three 5 star books in a row last month, I turned to some crime fiction from my back catalogue to change up my reading selection. Published in 2016, Daisy in Chains by Sharon J. Bolton is a crime novel with two main protagonists and a great supporting character.
Maggie Rose is a lawyer with a reputation for overturning murder convictions and publishing true crime books about their cases. Hamish Wolfe is a successful surgeon and convicted serial killer of plus sized women and is serving a prison sentence for his crimes.
Detective Pete Weston was responsible for cracking the case that put Wolfe away and saw him convicted of the murders of three women. Wolfe remains the primary suspect in the case of a fourth missing woman fitting his modus operandi. Meanwhile, Wolfe's mother and support group are convinced of his innocence and beg Maggie to take on the case and work on his legal appeal.
I vacillated between Wolfe's guilt and innocence and there were plenty of red herrings throughout the plot to keep the reader guessing. Letters between characters and draft chapters of Maggie's next true crime manuscript are included throughout the text and manage to drive the narrative forward and keep the pace high.
This was a four star read until the big reveal or what some readers are calling the twist. Unfortunately it was a step too far and a bit of a stretch for me and I felt like I'd been duped as a reader. Having said that, the first three quarters of the book until that point was a fast moving crime thriller that had me going backwards and forwards questioning Maggie's motives and Detective Pete Weston's involvement.
Recommended for crime fiction and thriller readers.
