Review: Daisy in Chains by Sharon Bolton

Synopsis from Good Reads:

Just what is it that attracts some women to the most evil of men? The seductive, twisty, exhilarating new thriller from Sharon Bolton.
He loves her. He loves her not.
He’s a serial killer. A murderer of young women, all killed in brutal attacks.
But despite his conviction, he’s always stuck to his story — he’s innocent and he’s been wrongly imprisoned. And now he wants someone to investigate, and more importantly, to write his story.
At first Maggie, a barrister and true-crime writer, is reluctant to even acknowledge his requests, ignoring his letters. But this is a very charismatic and persuasive man, good-looking and intelligent.
Eventually even she can’t resist his lure…

I loved this book! I’ve just discovered Sharon Bolton this year and I think this just might be my favorite of her books.

Daisy in Chains is told from the perspectives of Hamish, the convicted serial killer in prison, Maggie, the lawyer and true crime author that is considering taking on his case, and Pete, the detective responsible for putting Hamish behind bars and hoping to keep him there. Interspersed with the narrative of the three main characters are chapters that include newspaper and magazine articles, draft chapters of Maggie’s potential book on Hamish, e-mails, and letters. I love this kind of storytelling when done well and it’s done really well here.

The mystery was really well done. Bolton did a great job of keeping me guessing the whole time. I suspected multiple people the whole way through. There was one major plot twist that I guessed kind of early in, but it was just the tip of the iceberg in regards to how things turned out and I loved that I was still surprised by the ending. There are a lot of things that I want to say about the twists and the ending, but I really don’t want to do any spoilers. I’ll just say the mystery was clever and layered. Even if you guess one or two of the layers, there are still more surprises waiting for you.

Overall, I really enjoyed Daisy in Chains. It was such a great mystery with likable characters and just enough twists to keep me on my toes. I definitely recommend this one to mystery/thriller fans.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 4.5 Stars

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