Book Review: "Wanting Daisy Dead" by Sue Watson

Recently, I reviewed Watching Alice by Sue Watson and I noticed that the domestic thriller was something I wanted to investigate further and so, I wanted to see more of Sue Watson. Needless to say, this book is not a domestic thriller but instead one in which we need to find out why Daisy is dead. Twenty years' ago now, Daisy Harrington was murdered in cold blood and, after the police investigated it - they found a professor guilty for her murder. However, one podcast starring two women brings together her housemates from all that time ago and there, they seek to discover who really killed Daisy as, after all that time, people now suspect the man who was convicted was innocent the whole time. But, with every single person having a motive, Sue Watson invites us to interrogate everyone who once wanted Daisy dead...

The first character we have is Daisy Harrington, the dead woman. She was murdered and now, two women are investigating why they don't think that the guilty verdict was made against a guilty man but rather, one of her roommates did it instead. Sue Watson writes her character as an ever-present monkey on the back of each and every person in that room. Inviting the roommates to her 40th birthday party was easy: the podcasters just write an invite telling them that if they don't attend then everyone who is there will find out why the non-attendee wanted Daisy dead. So as you can probably tell, everyone attends because they are all absolutely shit scared of their secrets being revealed. In the midst of each of their narratives we see the podcasters interview people like Daisy's mother who doesn't believe the professor killed her daughter.

We then have Georgie who has a very clear anger problem. Regardless of whether Daisy was a nice person (spoiler: she wasn't all of the time), Georgie was constantly suspecting her of stealing her man and yet, she still holds on to the relationship many years' later. Dan, her husband, cheats on her with multiple different women and she is constantly snapping at him, arguing with him but in the end, when it comes to being accusatory the two of them don't let the other get thrown under the bus when the roommates meet at the party. They practically gang up on anyone who tries to accuse either of them for being responsible for Daisy's death. Oh and to throw a spanner into the works, they all find out that Daisy is pregnant at the time of her murder. Dan is suddenly on edge about whether it might be his. Sue Watson creates another layer to this narrative where it could really be anyone at all.

We also have Maddie, a quiet friend of Daisy's who is unassuming and gets easily roped into things. We have Lauren who is a writer and has been accused of stealing something that once belonged to Daisy. We have old friends and acquaintances such as Alex and then the convicted man's wife who knows full well that he is innocent. As people get roped in, as people get interrogated and as the podcast continues, it becomes clearer and clearer that basically everyone had a motive to murder Daisy. But what of the podcasters? Who are they really and what do they want with this group of misfits from two decades ago? Why are they so important and how does Sue Watson make us see something we don't see even though it is right there in front of our eyes?

This book is absolutely riveting I could barely put it down. I was practically waiting for the big reveal and instead of getting just a reveal, we get a slow burning candle which works its way down to the wick in twists and turns. We revisit the past constantly and we are not left alone for a second. The claustrophobia of the meeting for the party makes us all uneasy but not as uneasy as anyone who had a motive, had a secret, did the murder. In a style which mimics Murder on the Orient Express, every single person could be the guilty party - but who was it really?

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