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If you believe that, you’re ready to plunge head first down the rabbit hole created by L.J. Shepherd, a human rights barrister who lives in Cardiff.
If you’re skeptical, take a few moments to suspend disbelief before continuing. The Trials of Lila Dalton At the bottom of the rabbit hole, Shepherd is stirring a heady brew of speculative fiction and courtroom drama to create . Described in a jacket blurb as “unputdownable,” the novel might better be described as something from which you can’t escape once you’re in it.
This is a world where inhabitants believe Earth is hollow and a mysterious “they” are controlling minds, although there’s only a vague notion of who “they” might be. It’s a world where conspiracy theories flourish. This is also the world in which Lila Dalton, a young barrister, finds herself in a courtroom with no memory of how she came to be there.
She’s on her own since her silk (the equivalent of King’s Counsel, for Canadians) has been in an accident. Her client is accused of mass murder, but she can’t remember any details of the case. And Lila needs to take care — someone is threatening her daughter if she fails to get her client off.
To complicate matters, conspiracy nutcases have infiltrated the governm.