Review of THE TRIALS OF LILA DALTON by L. J. Shepherd (New Release)

 2 Stars

This book is an odd mix of courtroom drama, speculative fiction, and psychological suspense.

Lila Dalton awakes in a courtroom with no memory of who she is or her life. She quickly surmises that she’s a lawyer whose job it is to defend a man who planted bombs that killed 27 people. The trial is being held on an isolated island in the north Atlantic where the most serious crimes are tried. She starts receiving threatening messages, knows she is being monitored, and is even accused of a crime, so she doesn’t know whom she can trust even as it becomes apparent that it is imperative that she succeed in having her client acquitted.

The chaotic plot requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief. Its a muddled mishmash that goes madly off in in all directions, touching on conspiracy theories, far-right extremists, white supremacists, satanism, government cover-ups, the nature of time, mind-control, and memory tampering. The convoluted plot with its implausible scenarios is confusing and difficult to follow.

Then there’s the ending! The last scene is a coming-full-circle scene which is a nice touch but there are so many unanswered questions. The ending that is supposed to explain everything doesn’t, so it’s definitely not a satisfactory closing.

Another problem is that it is difficult to connect with Lila. We get to learn very little about her and she acts in a scatter-brained manner. For example, she knows she should be focusing on the case but she goes off and wastes time, later admitting, “How could I have dropped the ball so badly?” We do see glimmers of intelligence during her cross-examinations of witnesses, but otherwise there’s no depth to her. There’s a similar problem with the secondary characters who are also flat. So many of the men are stereotypical misogynists?

The only time I found myself agreeing with the novel was during the discussion of the dangers of the internet: “’This is going to be an information war. And the casualties will be logic and truth. The bombs will be lies and rhetoric. . . . People will be controlled by the internet. Even weirder, they’ll think they’re in control.’”

This book was definitely not for me. Much of the time I felt like Lila: lost and disoriented. Was this the author’s intention? The labyrinthine ideologies espoused by various characters and the illogical sequence of events make this a bizarre read. For me, it was a real trial.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.