James Woolf

A DECOMPOSED head is found floating in the River Thames.

This gruesome discovery and the ensuing murder investigation lead to one clear suspect.

And it is up to ambitious and diligent barrister Daniel O’Neil QC to defend them.

But nothing is entirely as it seems in James Woolf’s latest chilling psychological thriller, Indefensible.

Set against the backdrop of 1990s Britain, corruption and scandal envelop the Conservative government and ethical standards in public life are rapidly on the slide. There are references to Jonathan Aitken’s “cash for questions” scandal and John Major’s “back to basics” campaign which was widely ridiculed as his party lurched from one scandal to another.

“Jonathan Aitken’s battle with the Guardian was all about standards in professional life,” says Woolf.

“And I chose the 90s because, for me, that was a time when things were noticeably starting to slip with the stuff that was going on with John Major and the Nolan Commission which he set up.”

Running parallel to this crisis of confidence in the political class, we slowly see the ethical dilemmas facing Daniel with this case.

There is also his unsettled home life. His marriage has recently broken down and he embarks on a dubious and whirlwind romance with a crime reporter he meets at court. As a QC he is ferociously bright, of that there is no doubt. But he is sorely lacking when it comes to reading people and situations.

“Some people who have read the book have said to me: ‘Daniel makes some really crazy decisions’.

“But the thing I was trying to get across is that intellectually and workwise he’s a super-intelligent guy, but he lacks emotional intelligence and he just can’t read people or personal situations. I wanted to bring out this contrast with his prowess in the courtroom.”

It is perhaps this that draws the reader into an uncomfortable state of moral ambiguity surrounding Daniel. Is he such a terrible person? Or is he just an appalling judge of character and a bit clueless when it comes to, well, life. Thoughts inevitably turn to, could this happen to me?

The novel is a subtle and salutary lesson in how good people can slowly, almost imperceptibly, turn bad, or at least veer off entirely in the wrong direction.

Think shades of Breaking Bad… with wigs on.

Woolf is a huge fan of the hit Netflix show (in which Walter White is a very good guy who turns rotten) and says it was a big influence on him in terms of suspense writing. He is not a big reader of crime novels, instead enjoying literary fiction by the likes of Maggie Shipstead, Damon Galgut, Alan Hollinghurst and Ian McEwan, among others.

As for the legal world, it is one with which Woolf is very familiar.

For 12 years he was at the Bar Council running the helpline for barristers making enquiries about their code of conduct.

Now he works as a policy adviser for The Law Society.

Woolf, who lives in Friern Barnet and is also a respected playwright and short story writer, says he wanted to use his professional knowledge of barristers’ codes of conduct and professional ethics to write “a professional ethics thriller”. (Sounds dry, but it isn’t.)

How did his colleagues in the legal world react to the novel?

“It’s gone down really well,” he says. (On its release, Indefensible quickly became an Amazon bestseller, owing in no small part to the recommendation of some of his legal colleagues.)

“I was a bit nervous about how they would react. I wanted to look at the mechanics of the court, and the process and not just give it the superficial treatment that is so often the case and I think they appreciated that.”

Despite being steeped in law, Woolf still did lots of research on advocacy and went to the Old Bailey to watch cases.

He read transcripts of trials and spoke to legal and forensic experts, among others. It was, he says, “really important that the trial felt real”.

With its twists and turns, Indefensible is a masterclass in suspense – I read it feverishly in one sitting. It elegantly and cleverly wrong-foots the reader and what appears to be an innocent misstep by Daniel will, we soon realise, have devastating consequences.

And as the novel’s strapline reads: “His dream case will become his worst nightmare.”

• Indefensible. By James Woolf, Bloodhound Books, £11.99