Dear Daughter

Rich wild child and ‘It’ girl Jane Jenkins is seventeen when she is jailed for the brutal murder of her mother.  Ten years later she is released, due to her lawyer successfully managing to get her case overturned on the strength of accusations of evidence mishandling by the LA lab that dealt with her case.  Jane is fairly sure she is not guilty of killing her mother.  The problem is, the more time goes by, the less sure she is of what did actually happen that night…

Deciding that the best way to prove her innocence is to find out who really did kill her mother, Jane dons a disguise and a new identity, with the help of her lawyer, and begins the search for her mother’s murderer.  The only clue she has to aid her is a fragment of an overheard conversation, mentioning the name Adeline.  But is this a reference to a person or a place?  Jane is determined to find out.  And all the while Jane is on the trail of her mother’s murderer the paparazzi are on the trail of her, the society murderess now roaming free.  Will she manage to discover her mother’s killer before her identity is revealed?

In a novel that makes pointed comments on media’s obsession with celebrity, we follow Jane on her journey, while the trial of ten years ago is gradually revealed in court transcripts, and the mystery media blogger apparently obsessed with finding Jane picks up her trail.  It’s a rather unconventional format for a novel and Jane, spoiled wild child that she is, is not a likeable heroine.  As Jane begins to peel away the layers of her mother’s life to reveal the rather rotten core at the heart of her youth, I found myself pulled into the story, and realised that Jane’s story is far more complex than we are initially led to believe.

This is a compelling debut novel which will not fail to surprise you, probably more than once.