Published 1st February by Pushkin Vertigo.
From the cover of the book:
You are standing in the middle of a courtroom.The judge, jury and prosecution team are waiting for you to speak.
But you have no idea who you are.
Lila Dalton finds herself the lead defence for a man accused of a terrible crime, his fate in her hands. She doesn’t know how she got there, but is surprised to discover that she possesses legal knowledge, and that everyone else seems to know who she is.
Outside the courtroom, things are even more unnerving: the courthouse is on a peculiar island where the locals are hostile, threats are slipped beneath her door, and her phone calls are tapped. Hints from strange sources suggest that someone from her forgotten past is in very real danger ― but are the threats genuine, or a warning from her missing memories?
As the trial progresses, Lila must decide who and what she can trust ― and whether that includes herself...
***********
Lila Dalton finds herself standing in a courtroom at the beginning of a trial into the alleged crimes of a mass murderer. The judge, jury, and prosecuting counsel all stand ready, and the accused man stares out blankly from the dock. The courtroom waits for the first words of the defending counsel... the problem is that Lila is the barrister appointed for the defence, and she has no memory of her life before this moment, including any details of the case.
In flashes, Lila's knowledge of legal procedure comes back to her as she sets about preparing to fight a case that seems impossible to win. The weirdness of her situation, bizarre interruptions, and the disorienting memories of a blue-eyed man that keep plaguing her, are throwing her off her game too.
Events only get stranger when she discovers that this courthouse is very deliberately housed on a remote island in the Atlantic, from which there seems to be no escape, and threatening messages keep coming her way telling her something very bad will happen to someone close to her if she does not manage to get her client acquitted. What is really happening here, and who can she trust - if anyone?
The Trials of Lila Dalton is not your normal legal thriller. Instead, debut author, Human Rights barrister L.J. Shepherd, uses her own experience of defending high-profile cases to create a mind-bending, twisty novel that thrums with unsettling, claustrophobic vibes in a Black Mirror vein - and like the best of the speculative stories that the Black Mirror series portrays, this book also explores some very thought-provoking themes.
The story unfurls in the first person through Lila's eyes, which works beautifully in this menacing context. You are confined to viewing the small cast of characters, from her legal colleagues to the oft hostile locals, solely through the lens of Lila's perceptions of them, which shifts markedly over the course of the story. It is hard to explain quite how brilliant this novel is without spoilers, but without giving the game away, I can tell you that Shepherd cleverly subverts what you think will be a tense court-room drama into something very different, exploding the storylines with threads of manipulation, conspiracy, extremist ideologies, and anarchy, set in a surreal island location peopled with a hotch-potch of characters with shady agendas.
You do have to concentrate to keep track of the shifting memories; time jumps; jarring visions that keep Lila in an endless cycle of deja-vu; and the sheer scope of lies-within-lies that flood the story; but Shepherd's writing pulls you seductively towards the search for the truth at Lila's side. I could not look away until all the twists, turns, and cleverly contrived intricacies of the story worked themselves out in the slick, and provocative conclusion.
Shepherd does an incredible job of taking you through courtroom protocol; the work that goes into a high-profile jury trial; the impact of the evidence presented on the legal team; and how a barrister needs to think on their feet; in a way that I have rarely seen done so well. But more than that she explores a bevy of timely questions around justice; truth; and how to combat terrorism (especially domestic terrorism); and uses the story to cast a penetrating eye on the future of the kind of worryingly dystopian political policies we see coming into being in the present. Lots to ponder on here.
I think this is a book likely to divide the crowd, especially for those expecting a conventional courtroom yarn, but if you enjoy a story that sends you diving down a whole warren full of rewarding rabbit-holes in parallel with the characters, then you will love it as much as I have. I cannot wait to see what springs from the pen of L.J. Shepherd next!
The Trials of Lila Dalton is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats.
Thank you to Pushkin Press for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
L.J. Shepherd lives in Cardiff with her rescue cat, Coral. She studied English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. After graduating, she decided to pursue a career in law and began practising as a barrister in 2017. Since then, Laura has prosecuted and defended in many jury trials in the Crown Court. She is now a Human Rights barrister instructed in high-profile public inquiries.
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