I am a massive fan of Helen Fields’ police procedurals, set in Edinburgh. So when I heard that she had written a psychological thriller under a nom de plume, I could not wait to get my hands on it.

A bonus for me is that this is a legal thriller, predominantly set in Bristol’s High Court. I do love a good legal thriller, and this one is a cracker. Maria Bloxham is on trial for attempted murder. She was hoping that it would have been murder, but sadly her husband for the last 18 years, Edward Bloxham, survived, albeit he is now in a vegetative state.

Maria confessed to bludgeoning her husband after calling the police following her husband’s collapse at their home. It should be an open and shut case for the jury, though Maria is pleading not guilty.

Degrees of Guilt follows the jury process, though not so literally as to spoil the story, to show the reader the trial process and jury deliberations in a trial where it soon becomes clear, we do not know anything like the whole story.

This is a novel that pares back the layers of seemingly successful and conventional marriages to expose the egos, fragility and darkness that lies below.

There are those that relish being part of the action on a big jury trial, and others who wish themselves thousands of miles away, and Chandler neatly brings us a microcosm of juries across the country who bring their own experiences and prejudices to the British jury system.

Lottie Hiraj is a wife and mother. Called to serve on the jury, she is feeling just a little bit liberated as she gets to leave her humdrum life as a stay at home mother. Lottie is married to Zain, a handsome, middle class Pakistani with ambition. She loves him, but is finding that since the birth of their son, Daniyal, her world has become small and lacking in stimulation. She needs her little grey cells stimulated and once selected, relishes the vitality of being in a room with other adults discussing a challenging scenario.

The evidence itself is harrowing, but of course only tells one part of the story; here interpretation is everything. From the barristers to the psychologist, to the police inspector and to Maria herself, this is a story that everyone has a view about, but how the jury interprets it will be crucial.

Lottie is delighted to find that in the summer heat of Bristol, one of the jurors, a local craftsman, seems very attracted to her and after some light flirtations, it is clear that she is as attracted to him as he is to her. This feeling of being desired and of having her opinions valued feels new and exciting to Lottie and soon she is embroiled in a previously unthinkable situation.

While the courtroom battle proceeds and Maria’s case of self-defence seems hopeless, Lottie is finding that there is more than one unreliable narrator in this domestic noir drama.

Maria is fighting for her freedom, but can she convince the jury of the validity of her word. What is justice in the context of a story where the only evidence is the word of one woman?

Juror Lottie now finds herself in a supremely difficult position, but this will give her the edge that she needs to come to the right conclusion?

Chandler has written a riveting, pacey and very black story for our times which illustrates only too well the need for a law on coercive control. Her narrative is compelling and the stories of Lottie and Maria keep us on the hook while we wriggle and turn at every twist, trying to comprehend who is telling the truth and where justice really lies.

Verdict: A brilliant, exciting and addictive novel from a terrific storyteller

Nothing in life is every black and white, there are shades of grey that blur our opinions, are thoughts, it’s one thing hearing the facts, but what about the untold story, what hidden truths could change a guilty verdict around or vice versa. Degrees Of Guilt by H.S. Chandler is a thrilling book where your opinion of the guilty, in this case Marie who freely admits to killing her husband, will sway at almost every chapter. This has to be one of the most exciting, complex, and compelling legal thrillers I’ve read EVER, it’s the definition of a page turner. Rather like the jury, you find yourself living and breathing Marie’s trial, separating fact from fiction and hoping you make the right decision, guilty or not guilty? It’s up to you to decide.

With a stellar of an opening chapter Degrees Of Guilt pulls you in to Maries’s story at first she appears cold and rational, But then as the story deftly unfolds we learn more about Marie’s life with Edward, nothing is as it first appears, is Marie telling the truth? or is her story one that’s been fabricated to gain sympathy for her wrongdoing’s? I couldn’t help but feel some empathy for her character, even though at times I had my doubts if she really was as innocent as she claimed to be. The novel is an intricate web of lies, secrets, manipulations, and deceit which make this story a constant, head spinning guessing game, and right up until the last chapter you are never sure where the truth really lies.

Lottie is on the jury, trying to decide Marie’s fate, at first she’s a reluctant participate, she’s nervous, timid, her life is very different to Marie’s she’s a wife and mother who life centres on her family, but as Marie’s trial unfolds she realises she has far more in common with her than she first thought. I found it fascinating to see how the mixed bunch of jurors first assumptions of Marie changed throughout the story, at first she’s depicted as a cold and calculated killer but as more details of her life with Edward are revealed their opinions and feelings constantly shift, so you are never sure which verdict they will choose. Marie’s story is intense, alarming and uncomfortable, so some readers may some readers scenes upsetting.

The setting of a courtroom for most of the novel adds a palatable sense of claustrophobia and trepidation, a ploy that’s guaranteed to keep you reading and will make you reluctant to put this novel down even for a few minutes.
Degrees of guilt is part domestic noir infused with a believable and heart wrenching courtroom drama, oozing with tension and mystery. HS Chandler knows how to keep the reader's attention with a complex plot, intriguing characters, and a couple of curveballs I never saw coming until they hit me in the face! A superb book that I would highly recommend to those who love domestic noir wrapped up in a courtroom drama.

Wow was this a much more difficult read than I thought it would be. Hold on that’s not meant in a bad way, more that it was a little close to home . Having been with a controlling partner for 13 years ( I managed to escape 5 years ago) I recognised a lot of the gaslighting and how easy it is to be chipped away at a little bit at a time until before you know it you’ve disappeared. This was written with subtlety, and in a time where women no longer have control over what happens to their bodies it couldn’t be more appropriate.

The characterisation is flawless and what I enjoyed the most was how even when the women seemed helpless and weak they were strong. It takes great skill to write with such nuance .

Maria was so complex I didn’t know what to believe and Lottie fell into the trap of flattery (when will women learn)!

I was fascinated by the courtroom proceedings and felt like I was part of the jury as the evidence was presented. I did wonder if being a female reader my judgement would automatically side with Maria but with a female prosecutor this made it harder which was clever.

With a great start, a captivating middle and an ending that you have no idea where it’s going to go this is a book I would highly recommend.

One of the most well written books I have read in a long time. The characters felt so real and I could understand why their lives and motivations were what they were. Maria and Lotte make wonderful main characters and the supporting characters just make the story even stronger. There is even a few curve balls that I never saw coming. It gives a solid ending that makes you want to know more, but you are satisfied with the book as a whole. 5 stars

“ Degree. Of Guilt” is a roller coaster of a book. Everytime you think you know all the answers, another twist is thrown in.
The book opens with Maria Bloxham dialing emergency services to report she just killed her husband Edward Bloxham. When the police arrive she is shocked and upset to learn that her husband Edward Bloxham is not dead.
The second main character is Charlotte (Lottie) Hiraj who is chosen reluctantly to be on the jury in Maria’s case. Lottie makes a halfhearted attempt to be recused from the jury as her husband wanted but is unable to. Lottie is torn at feeling she is unworthy of sitting in judgement of someone and excited at a chance to do something useful. Lottie is chafing under the routine of being “ just a housewife” and looks forward to the possibility of making friends with her fellow jurors.
During the long breaks when the jury is forced to wait Lottie begins an affair with an attractive member of the jury named Cameron and gets involved in a situation that could cost her everything.
The book handles the subject of how someone can be broken by mental abuse and being controlled by being cut off from everyone that so many of us take for granted such as a phone, going to the market, choosing our own clothing- one of the most stark examples of how cowed Maria is was the scene of her husband throwing out her feminine hygiene products and deciding she should use pads.
I was expecting one of the characters to have ulterior motives so the first twist was not a complete surprise but the author really draws you in so you are as outraged and hurt as Lottie.
This is a great story on how someone can finally be pushed too far and snap. This is one of the best books I have read recently and highly recommended for anyone who enjoys psychological and legal thrillers. Thank you to @netgalley and @orionpublishing for the advance copy- it was a pleasure to read and review.

HS Chandler Degrees of Guilt

I’m reviewing this for Netgalley and am really excited to do so-

Wow, what can I say?!
HS Chandler is actually Helen Fields but her writing felt different in this book.

Maria is on trial for attempted murder.

She has confessed to the crime and wanted her husband dead.

Lottie is on the jury, trying to decide her fate.

She embarks on an illicit affair with a stranger, and her husband can never find out.

The book opens with some ‘gruesome description ‘ at the start, followed by the who, why, and what is going on!
The relationships grow between all of the characters absolutely convincingly and left me wondering what on Earth could come next!

I swear I could feel tension and felt on tenterhooks so many times. I felt empathy with Maria and Lottie, I actually cried! Real tears, I could not put it down after the first few chapters. Brilliant twists in my opinion and brilliant ending! I hope it’s a first of many.

‘Degrees Of Guilt’ is the first book written by the author H. S. Chandler. I will let you into a little secret but don’t tell anybody I told you. Although this is H. S. Chandler’s first book, she has actually released a bestselling series featuring the enigmatic Detective Luc Callanch under the pen name of Helen Fields. In other words H. S. Chandler and Helen Fields are one and the same person. I adore the Callanach series and I just knew that I would love reading ‘Degrees Of Guilt’. I must be psychic (or should that be psychopathic?) because I just adored reading it but more about that in a bit.
The two main characters in this book are called Maria and Lottie. Maria is the lady who in on trial for attempted murder. The book opens with the aftermath of her attempts to murder her husband for reasons which are not immediately apparent. Maria is most upset to find out that she has not succeeded in killing him. To be fair to Maria, she attacks her husband but she rings the emergency services herself and she doesn’t deny a thing when she is apprehended. I kept chopping and changing my mind over whether or not I actually liked Maria. Lottie on the other hand is a member of the jury set to decide on the verdict as to whether or not Maria is guilty. Lottie is married to Zain but I had a feeling that all is not well with their marriage. Lottie embarks on an affair with a fellow jury member although whether or not they start the affair out of boredom or because they fancy each other rotten is open to debate.
I don’t mean to be rude but OMFG ‘Degrees Of Guilt’ is one seriously fantastic read and it has to be up there as my favourite book of the year so far. I am a huge fan of all things Law & Order and I absolutely love all the court room scenes., which sees the prosecution argue with the defence and so on. In another life, I think I would have made a good barrister because I never stop investigating and I love a healthy argument/ debate. The author has a huge wealth of knowledge and experience over all things legal and this shines through in her writing. She describes the courtroom process so vividly that I really did feel as though I had got a sense of the boredom that can set in with certain trials and that sitting on a jury isn’t as exciting as is portrayed on the television. In fact the author uses such powerful and realistic descriptions that I felt as though I was in the courtroom with them and on the jury myself. I think that I have visions of being the female equivalent of Jack McCoy from ‘Law & Order’ and so at one point I wanted to ask the suspect and witnesses questions of my own.
The author certainly knows how to grab your attention from the start with an event so horrific, that you feel compelled to read on and on. The book begins in such a graphic and disturbing way that will ensure that ‘Degrees Of Guilt’ stays fresh in my mind for a long, long, long time to come. I was hooked on ‘Degrees Of Guilt’ from the very first sentence on the very first page and I just knew that the book would prove to be unputdownable. In fact as soon as I started to read the story, I had to cancel any plans I had for the rest of the day as I could not bear to be parted from the book. Woe betide anybody who tried to take this book out of my hands. The book wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it came everywhere with me. It was as if the book had cast a spell over me and that if I put it down, I would break that spell. The more I read, the further I got into the story and the more addicted to this book I became. I binge read the book over the course of a day but I was so focused on the story and I was enjoying the author’s writing style, the characters and the storylines so much that I lost track of time and I didn’t notice the speed with which the pages were turning. I got to the end of the book and I was most disappointed. I know that sounds bad but I don’t mean that I was disappointed with the way in which the story finished but I was enjoying the book so much that I just wanted it to continue on and on.
Reading this book was very much like being on a very scary and very unpredictable rollercoaster ride with more twists and turns than you would find on a ‘Snakes & Ladders’ board.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Degrees Of Guilt’ and I will definitely be recommending this book to other readers. I can’t wait to read more from H. S. Chandler. Here’s hoping that we don’t have too long to wait. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

<b>My thoughts:</b>
This debut legal thriller deserves more than 5 ⭐️’s!

Just as the book blurb stated, I thought I knew what was going to happen. I was wrong! Even if I’d been correct, it would have been an interesting read. But wow, with all the unpredicted twists, it was amazing.

I enjoyed every page of this courtroom drama! A gruesome murder at the start pulled me right in...except it wasn’t a murder. Maria is calm when she calls emergency services after bashing in the head of her husband—Edward—with a chair leg. She tells them that she’s just killed her husband. But she learns he’s still alive. Now...Maria is on trial for attempted murder.

Lottie is on the jury, against her husband’s wishes. She’s a housewife with a 3-year-old son she adores. She spends her days cooking, cleaning and being the perfect wife to her husband—Zain. She’s excited to get a time-out from her predictable and mundane life.

Cameron is another member of the jury. He’s good-looking, charming and exciting. And he’s showering Lottie with attention, something her husband no longer has time for. It doesn’t take long before their innocent flirtations turn into more. Lottie crossed a line she never dreamed she was capable of and now she needs it to end before her husband finds out.

One of the things that made this book so riveting, was that it was horrifyingly believable. It’s terrifying to think a man can be so charming and normal to the outside world, and an actual monster capable of such mental and psychological abuse in private, if Maria’s claims are true.

I highly recommend this suspenseful thriller, but beware
of sensitive content!

<b>My Rating: </b> 5 ⭐️’s
<b>Published:</b> May 16th 2019 by Trapeze
<b>Pages:<b/> 368

<b>Recommend:</b> YES!

Thank you to NetGalley / Trapeze and H.S. Chandler for a copy of this digital ARC, in exchange for my honest review!
#DegreesOfGuilt #NetGalley

I don't often read courtroom drama's as I sometimes find them a little slow paced and I quickly lose interest. This was certainly not the case with this book. What a great read!

This story is so much more than you expect it to be when you first start reading. Maria is on trial for the attempted murder of her husband. She has confessed to the crime and admits that she wanted her husband dead.

Lottie is one of the jury members trying to decide on Maria's fate. She embarks on an illicit affair with another member of the jury but is desperate to keep her husband from finding out about it.

The story focuses on Maria's actions and the events leading up to her arrest and also the actions of the jury, both inside and outside of the courtroom. It explores mental abuse, self harming and the effect of living with an abusive partner. It gives a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the jury and what happens in the jury room. The characters are well developed and come to life as the story progresses. This is a clever and thought provoking story which will keep you on the edge of your seat before before the final verdict is revealed.

I found this compulsive reading and literally could not put the book down. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley, Orion Publishing Group, Trapeze and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Degrees of Guilt is a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable courtroom drama/legal thriller and given HS Chandler (Helen Fields's nom de plume) is a criminal barrister she allows her extensive knowledge of the law to inform this superb thriller and create an authenticity that is missing from so many of these books. I can personally attest to the accuracy of the law within these pages having gained a law degree myself.

Although this centres very much around the legal system it is accessible to those with no prior knowledge of the law, but Chandler doesn't allow this focus to take away from other aspects of the novel. We are treated to a well constructed and exciting plot, three-dimensional characters and surprise twists aplenty. I must admit, I fell under its spell pretty quickly and found it completely captivating from start to finish.

Not only is the plot credible it's thoroughly absorbing too. Chandler illustrates perfectly that often guilt or innocence is not quite so black and white and there are certainly issues that muddy the water here. This is a first-class, top-notch legal thriller which will give readers lots to ponder with some genuinely shocking moments; this is a real page-turner. Absolutely superb. Many thanks to Trapeze for an ARC.

One of the best books I have read this year. An utterly intriguing and inthralling story even though I guessed the ‘culprit’ (promise!) Thanks to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read a fantastic unforgettable book.

Wow! What a page turner. Great courtroom drama with twists and turns, very well-developed characters and good writing. Till the end I wasn’t sure what to think and then big shocker. I had goosebumps when I read some of the descriptions. Loved it. I will absolutely read more books by HS Chandler.


Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and Trapeze for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

“Degrees of Guilt” was one of the best novels set in a courtroom that I’ve recently read and it’s also a début! I found it completely captivating and this totally brilliant legal thriller had me utterly engrossed with every chapter until the fulfilling conclusion.

I highly recommend it to all lovers of the thriller genre.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel at my own request from Orion Publishing via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Maria is trapped in an appalling marriage, with a man who controls her every move, and almost her every thought. Little by little, her life has shrunk to an existence which is confined to her home and garden - her beautiful home and garden that her husband insists she should be grateful for. To outside eyes, her husband, Edward is a well respected campaigner for animal and environmental rights. Only Maria knows the truth behind Edward's public persona.

Then one day....a fateful call to the police..."I've killed my husband".

Maria now finds herself on trial for the attempted murder of her monster of a husband. How can she make a jury believe that the violence inflicted upon Edward was justified?

Lottie has found herself a member of the jury called to pass judgement on Maria. Lottie is lacking in confidence since the birth of her child, and feel herself confined to the role of wife and mother. She feels unqualified to make the decision that will affect another human being's freedom.
Excited at the prospect of a break from motherhood, Lottie finds herself drawn to another member of the jury and becomes entangled in a situation that proves to be far more complicated that she imagined.

Who are the guilty and who are the innocent?

This book is brilliant! It is so easy to call a thriller unputdownable these days, but believe me when I say that this one is a genuine page turner. I actually could not put this down until I had reached the climax and found out the truth - which hits you exactly like Edward was hit with the chair leg!

The plot pays out as the court case progresses, until the truth unfolds right at the end of the book. The tension during the trial is palpable and builds beautifully. You can almost feel yourself sitting in the court room, listening to the judge, barristers and witnesses.

There are a couple of superb twists, that you will genuinely not see coming. You may even find yourself using a juicy swearword out loud when you find out what actually happened - I know I did (fortunately within the privacy of my own kitchen!).

There has been quite a lot in the press recently about coercive abuse within a relationship, so this debut is particularly well timed. Some of the moments described here are quite difficult to read, but I think it is important to be aware that this type of abuse is real.

This book is a first class debut and I am looking forward to more from H.S. Chandler.

‘Degrees of Guilt’ is a howl of feminst rage wrapped in a taut, legal thriller, as it not only exposes the soicetal depiction of women and the ties that bind them to their pre-ordained roles, it precisely accounts for the way that the justice system deals them unfair blow after unfair blow.

This is absolutely no tale of women to be pitied, this is the story of the woman who roared, and in doing so , was reduced, subdued and made monstrous.It is the story of her counterpart, a woman who never believes that she is worth more than the life her husband deems fit for her.

But on their respective sides of the courtroom, a growing sense of familiarity begins to grow and then mutate itself into something quite spectacular…

The facts of the matter are thus- with no warning or inclination, Maria hits her husband, Dr Edward Bloxham so hard with a chair leg that it doesn’t kill him, it does something far ,far worse. He is left disfigured, brain damaged and a shell of a man. In fact, so stark is the contrast to the Edward of before the attack, that the prosecution want to really ram this home by using his actual, wheelchair bound body, as an exhibit.

On the other side is Lottie. A mother of one and wife , she finds jury duty to be an outlet for a frustrated life which has become an ever decreasing circle of marital respnsibilities. She is one of the twelve people who are preapring to judge Maria. But how can this woman who has confessed to the crime, plead not guilty to attempted murder?

A smart and beguiling legal thriller is just where ‘Degrees of Guilt ‘ begins, Through the story, HS Chandler dismantles how women are represented from the use of words such as ‘accused’ instead of ‘defendant’ carrying different weight and emphasis. She sets uo stunning scenes wherein Maria details all the horrendous abuse she has had to contend with inside her gilded marriage cage and just how she didn;t realise that she was trapped until it was no longer possible to walk away.

One of the most moving and heartbreaking scenes has to be where she finds money down the back of the settee whilst cleaning. The sheer joy of holding her own money, all 38p of it, is heartbreaking and wonderful all at once.

Whenever we read about domestic violence’ it is always couched in the terms of ‘Why didn’t she just leave?’

A more important question to ask is ‘what made staying your only option?’

‘Charm Syndrome‘ from Sandra Horley explains so succinctly how these men pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, yet when the women are able to leave, not only do they lose their home, their jobs and their support network and their financial freedom, they lose the respect of others. There is the implicit suggestion that they must have done something to make a man react in such a way. The men are left free to carry on their way, with no recourse, no punishment, unless they end up like Edward Bloxham.

The hope for, and fight for justice towards a woman pushed to the edge and beyond, is something I don’t think will be satisfactorily resolved within my lifetime. Until then, the clarion call of books such as these will keep on flagging up the issues and keeping it front and centre.

Amazing work!

First, thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read an e-galley of this book.

What an amazing book of twists and turns! This story is about a lady who is accused of attempted murder, and the jury who is listening to her court case.

From the get go, Maria called the police and said she killed her husband. What she didn't know until after the police put her in handcuffs, was that her husband wasn't dead.

The 12 jurors are like any other 12 jurors. They are all different ages from all different walks of life, with little patience for each other.

About the time I was starting to see where one side of the story was going, it would switch to the other perspective and I would have to stop to catch my breath!

I read this in one sitting, late into the night!
#NetGalley #DegreesofGuilt

I’d been on a bit of a can’t find a book to get stuck into for a while and nothing had lived up to my expectations, but this surprised me. I was hooked.

A really good legal thriller which was believable. Good characters and very well written. Felt really sorry for Maria and Lottie. Cameron isn’t what you originally think.

I usually guess the twists early on but I didn’t guess the twist in this book until really near the end.

I would highly recommend anyone who likes a good crime, court room, thriller and even psychological book reads this. I’d give it more than 5 stars if I could.

Looking forward to the next HS Chandler book.

Thank you Net Galley for letting me read this, now I have to find a new book!

Innocent. Guilty. Two words among the millions which can be found in any dictionary. Except those ones decide on people’s future. On paper, it is easy to make to see the difference and draw a bold line between those nouns, but life is anything but easy, and this is what Maria and Lottie both discover in Degrees of Guilt.

I am a sucker for legal thrillers. Give me courtroom drama any day and I’m a happy reader. But…

Degrees of Guilt is different from regular legal thrillers.

Degrees of Guilt is unlike any other legal thrillers.

Degrees of Guilt builds its own path on the legal thrillers road to awesomeness.

Can you guess if I enjoyed reading this novel now?

Helen Fields, or should I say H.S. Chandler, is one of those writers who can easily slip into people’s mind, dig out the best and the worst they can find, and offer it to their readers in a beautifully and frightfully brilliant way. I can’t even touch the subject of the plot without first mentioning how its power is enhanced by Helen’s superb and expert narrative skills.

How many times do we gloss over newspaper articles about every day drama? Don’t we all watch the newscast absentmindedly while they discuss awful violent incidents in a robotic voice? What happens when the name in the headlines is yours? What happens when you become part of the news… without your consent?

Degrees of Guilt reminds us there is more than one side to every story. In fact, there is more than two sides, too. Mixing the intricate and slippery ways of the law to human nature, adding secrets and lies before slathering a good amount of judgement on top of it, this novel tackles current matters with a hand of steel and hearts full of emotions.

Maria has admitted to attempting to kill her husband, famous ecologist Mr Bloxham. Lottie has been selected to be a member of the jury. Simple? Haha! No.

A few sentences allowed me to get a clear picture of both women, very different at first sight.

Maria’s coldness felt like an armor. What would have possibly spurred this spouse to hit her husband so hard that his head caved in? Reading her story was absolutely heart-breaking and amazingly inspiring. In the middle of the #MeToo movement and the slow progress societies are making when it comes to relationships and their nature, I found her character to be extremely spot-on. Her defense is based on the basis she was living a nightmare, stuck in an abusive marriage. Her account made my blood run cold. Violence has multiple faces and Edward Bloxham seemed to be wearing one of them. But can Maria be trusted? She doesn’t seem to feel any remorse… Should she? If her testimony is true, who could really judge her actions? I couldn’t get enough of her portrayal, the author building two cases: one painfully explaining how a woman can end up unable to flee a toxic relationship and find her life reduced to the bare minimum, while the second pushing hard facts to blind the world to the effects of manipulation and violence. There is a fine line between being a devious wife and a clever-husband’s victim and the reader is asked to walk this line with Maria and Lottie. Prepare for some really intense moments, so real the fear makes you cling to your tea cup a little stronger, so authentic your heart skips beats and your brain is in limbo, unable to process it all.

Lottie… I found it funny she should be chosen to be part of a jury. Quick to judge, she seemed really worried about other’s opinion of her, and I wondered how she would restrain her habit of making assumptions in such a situation. A trial is tricky. Both sides have arguments, proofs are examined, everything and everyone is scrutinized. It is impossible to stay impervious to what you witness. So how do you keep your feelings at bay, how do you steer clear of external factors to focus solely on your case? Jury members are no robots and H.S. Chandler reminds us we are flawed in many ways. Lottie is a wife and a mother, unhappy to see her life coming down to those two facts. Her personal life is bound to interfere with her duties and, weirdly enough, her own decisions create a parallel with the case she’s working on, building a multi-layered plot which takes countryside roads with bumps and holes she tries to escape, only to find herself closer to Maria than she ever thought.

The prosecution has a strong case, and Maria is facing the heavy and scary shadow of the Law. Is there room for emotions? Are facts and the interpretations we make of them enough to make the truth appear? Is there only one truth? Oh, dear author, I love you. You’ve treated me to my all-time favorite legal thriller. I wish I had the words to do justice to this book, but I can’t. The best justice for it is for everyone to read it!!!

Did I mention Degrees of Guilt is brilliant and I will personally sue you if you don’t get it? Now I’ve said it.

Chandler has written a thrilling and compulsive read shifting directions with every chapter, ratcheting tension as one life hangs in the balance and others are threatened to change forever. Five stars are not enough for this novel which associates a profound character-driven plot to a fantastic and riveting case on the law and its limits.

We are all guilty... It's only a matter of degrees...

On this book is SO Good. I can highly recommend it.

It has believable characters and a riveting storyline that kept me reading into the early hours. It is very emotional and keeps you hooked right to the very last twist!

5stars only because there isn't more.

I enjoy stories that involve morals and put you on the spot. I adore novels that provoke a reader and make you question the side you’re on. I love novels that secretly make you want to cheer the bad guy on.. it’s wrong to do so and you feel guilty but ok not all that much because sometimes, you know, it just can’t be helped. Degrees of Guilt is exactly this kind of brilliant novel, it hits all the high notes. In hindsight, I have to admit the title kind of gives it away but I was still very much unaware of it when I started reading this novel. I was ready to judge and condemn but I’ve never felt so torn.

The novel did start chillingly, with a woman, cold and rational, standing beside her dead husband. She also admits to the crime right away. How could this court case go then, it’s all rather clear cut, right? Awful crime, no remorse, big sentence to be expected. Well you might be mistaken there. There was a lot of background story that explains her current predicament. The novel massively challenged me to take mitigating circumstances into consideration. How much can be excused and can you ever understand why someone would murder someone else? I don’t know if I could say it out loud but eh deep down I understood why she did it for one hundred percent. What the outcome, the verdict would be was a big mystery though, and what I wanted it to be and how the jury saw it and if we were on the same page at all, I can’t say.

At first there wasn’t a bone in my body that made me consider her innocent but as the days progressed it was obvious that she was a victim too, trapped in a loveless marriage. I have read plenty novels with disturbing content and domestic abuse before but the author detailed her daily horrors so perfectly, it was such a quiet venom that poured from the pages, it would melt the coldest of hearts. A big tipping point and a scene that had a big impact on me was when I read about the tampons. I don’t know why that stood out but I think it’s something that is just completely our (a woman’s) business and everyone else should keep out of it.

Even though I knew what she had done and saw the damage together with the jury, I couldn’t help sympathise with Maria almost from the beginning. I believed her, I wanted to believe her, although I didn’t really know why she felt the need to lie about parts of her story. Why would she do that? A tiny part of me did feel a moment’s hesitation there about her. I didn’t know what to think.

Degrees of guilt is a domestic drama mixed with fantastic scenes in the courtroom and let’s not forget the sizzles between Lottie and hottie Cameron. Gawd there’s electricity crackling in the air! Their game was tantalising to watch unfold and he was sooo hot I could feel my own cheeks burn ;-). I found it a bit odd to insert this into such a novel but then it did help to lighten up the story a little and in the end it just worked out brilliantly.

Degrees of Guilt is definitely one of the best releases of the year for me. The novel demands to take a stance about the justice in this case and what you think is fair, it is so heartfelt, you just can’t not think about it when you’re not reading it. What would you do if you were on the jury? I can tell you it’s a difficult one because our heart and our head speak a different language when reading this novel! I can’t believe this is the first novel by Helen Fields I read but it most definitely won’t be the last.