‘Twisted’ by Maggie Giles

Published by Rising Action Publishing,
19 September 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-99025370-6

Blaine and Melanie run a not very legal high class escort service. Some of the girls also lodge with them. Jackie is one of them,  and as she and Melanie are out one night they find a young woman asleep in a back alleyway, covered in cuts and bruises. Waking her, she tells them her name is Candy. They take her back home and find in the bag she is carrying a strange bottle of pills, but the label is made out to someone else.

Meanwhile Detective Ryan Boone attends a robbery at a jeweller’s shop. The owner tells them that the most precious object taken was a diamond bracelet. A strange pill is found lying on the shop floor.

We then learn of a Brielle Jeffries who wakes up in Jackie’s apartment and can remember nothing. She is a recovering drug addict and is worried she may have strayed back to her old habits. She often has flash backs to when she was six years old, kidnapped, and held to ransom. This led to her seeing a psychiatrist and becoming hooked on the drugs she was given.

One day Melanie has to provide ten girls for a party given by sleazy lawyer Paul Dorian at which there is more evidence of the same drug. No one seems to know what it is.

Detective Boone is becoming concerned about the jewellery robbery, strangely most of it was recovered in an alleyway but the bracelet is still missing. The more he and his team look into it, the more they discover it may have to do with recent murders, previously seeming to be unconnected. There is also the mystery of the unknown drug. Then to the team’s surprise the bracelet is found in a very unexpected place.

As the story unfolds it becomes obvious that no one is who they appear to be. Can Detective Boone and his team manage to unravel the seemingly impossible tangle of lies and deceit? It appears likely that the unknown drug which keeps being found in various places has something to do with events. They need to find out more about its effects on people and perhaps that will answer some of their questions.

A very good in-depth story dealing with the seedier side of life. I don’t think I have ever read such a complex and complicated plot – the title Twisted is very apt.

Thoroughly recommended for readers who love to unravel a complex plot.
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Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Maggie Giles is a Canadian author who enjoys creating new connections and experiencing new opportunities. Her writing interests span across a variety of genres but finding a focus on a women’s fiction with suspense elements. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.