Published by Penguin, Michael Joseph
Publication Date: 18th August 2022
Genre: Legal Thriller
Huge thanks to the publisher for the opportunity via NetGalley to discover another excellent writer in exchange for my honest opinion.
Book Description:
Ava Knight, a brilliant young prosecutor, always follows the rules. Until she meets Lily Hawthorne - a troubled fifteen-year-old, accused of stabbing charismatic hotel magnate Michael Osborne in cold blood.
From the outside, it seems a tragic, hopeless case. But Ava suspects something everyone else does not: MICHAEL OSBORNE IS LYING.
Because eighteen years ago, Ava was brutally assaulted. She identified her attacker; the case went to trial. But the jury let him go. His name? Michael Osborne
Back then, it was Michael's word against Ava's.
Now another girl's future hangs in the balance, how far will Ava go to be believed?
My Thoughts:
Wow! What a book! This novel had me holding my breath at more than one point, my pulse racing as I turned the pages. The main character put herself in such dangerous situations I really couldn't see a positive conclusion.
Ava Knight hasn't always been her name. The events of one terrible evening led to her changing everything about herself, even her identity. But as terrible as those events were, Ava decided to channel her experiences into becoming a stronger person, someone who would fight for justice every single day. All within the rules of course, because if you break the rules that's when things go wrong.
That is until that same man who turned her life upside down, Michael Osborne, turns up in Ava's new world eighteen years later. In a courtroom where Ava wasn't even scheduled to be. In a twist of Fate she is called in as a substitute barrister to attend a plea hearing in the case of a teenage girl charged with stabbing Mr Osborne. Her gut feeling is that the young girl is under duress to plead guilty for reasons unknown. Ava makes it her business there and then to find out more so that Michael Osborne does not escape justice a second time.
From that moment on Ava breaks just about every rule in the book on both personal and professional levels. She puts herself in ever more precarious positions, lying to her friends and family about where she is and with whom, building a relationship with the one man she once vowed she never wanted to set eyes upon ever again. I did ask myself a couple of times whether a professional person would really risk everything they've ever worked for purely on the grounds that they had a suspicion that something wasn't right. I suppose none of us could say for certain unless we had gone through all that Ava and her family had experienced.
The characters are all expertly drawn, the plot is tightly woven and I was shocked by the eventual conclusion. Suffice to say it's not just Ava who is withholding the truth of who they are. I very much enjoyed this novel from start to finish. The author's background in the legal world shines through and gives the whole story so much more credibility. This is the first of Lia Middleton's books I've read but it won't be the last. She joins Imran Mahmood in the heady ranks of strong new voices in the world of the legal thriller genre.
An outstanding 5 stars from me.
About the Author:
Lia Middleton is a barrister who specialises in criminal law, public law and offender management. She lives in Beaconsfield with her husband and their two children. Her first novel, When They Find Her, was published in May 2021.
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