Why a Booktrail?
Destination: Somerset Departure Time: 2000s
Is Hamish Wolfe, in prison for the murder of three girls, really the man everyone thinks he is?
Daisy in Chains
What you need to know before your trail
Hamish Wolfe has been locked up for the rest of his life for the abduction and murder of three young women. Despite this, he gets a stream of adoring letters every day professing love for the man who sleeps in a cell and is serving time for three brutal murders near the Cheddar Gorge.
Many women seem to think he’s innocent. So charming they say, he can’t possibly have done it. Enter Maggie Rose, a hard skinned lawyer and crime writer who only takes on cases that she can win. Hamish wants her, needs her but will she be able to resist his charms?
Travel Guide
“Three hundred feet above seal level, above the hills, the quarries and the rives, above the woods and meadows of the Somerset countryside stands a painted -steel observation tower”
Welcome to the Somerset area of beauty around the Mendip Hills and the raw and rough beauty of the Cheddar Gorge. For what you see and find in these caves and the surrounding areas will ensure that you never forget your visit when your guide is Sharon Bolton.
The caves and underground passages i the Gorge are where it’s suspected Hamish has left his victims. Sidcot Swallet and Goatchurch cavern are real caves mentioned but Rill Cavern and Gossam Cave are fictional. This world is dark, damp, smelly, earthy and very cold. Hard for climbers to navigate, the police to find bodies and even harder to carry one in here. An area of beauty contrasts the horrific way the bodies are left and disposed of. Gorge is a name and a description.
Portishead
The centre of the police investigations and where all evidence, gathered from court reports, love letters, police records and other snippets of information are laid pout and examined.
Isle of Wight
Meanwhile Hamish spends his days in his cell in Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight. The prison is no place for a man to be, innocent or not. This is a stark place where the lawyers visits is the only time there is some kind of order, where the riots stop and where, if the key turns when you’re in there with the bad guys, you’re stuck.
Streetview Maps
A) Cheddar Gorge
D) Isle of Wight - Parkhurst Prison
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
I’m starting to name medical conditions after some of these crime writers I’m reading now. After my (Sarah)Hilary heart attack the other day, I have now got Bolton Breathlessness. The first tine I got in was in the first chapter and that rescue takes place….then it happened a few chapters in then again and again. What the hell is going on here I thought. Is bolton messing with my mind? Well yes she was and she does it so brilliantly that when the reveal came – out of the Bolton blue O might add – I was practically floored. Did not see that coming. Did not even guess. No no way. I had to administer oxygen straight away otherwise I would still be flat out.
The case was an interesting one – a man accused of killing women deemed to be fat. Many women of a certain size are going missing – is someone targeting fat women to shame them as society turns away from those who don’ t fit the perfect image don’t they? Don’t fat people matter as much as victims?
There are some serous issues and uncomfortable truths being examined here. Letters, newspapers and police reports mingle with the investigation as Maggie takes on the case and delves deep into Hamish’s past.
The title – Daisy in Chains was particularly clever and when you get the true meaning, it’s a good feeling. I was thrilled to see the cover, the innocent flower, bloodied and flat and as the novel introduces people from the past, the whole story takes on a much wider significance and disturbing angle.
That’s all I’m going to say as you really have to go into this with not much backstory. Discover it for yourself but be aware of the Bolton Breathlessness that will surely result. Breathe, breathe…
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