Letters to My Daughter's Killer by Cath StaincliffeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - 1 day
Pages - 240
Publisher - C & R Crime
Blurb from Goodreads
Grandmother Ruth Sutton writes to the man she hates more than anyone else on the planet: the man who she believes killed her daughter Lizzie in a brutal attack four years earlier. Ruth's burden of grief and hatred, has only grown heavier with the passing of time, her avid desire for vengeance ever stronger. In writing to him Ruth hopes to exorcise the corrosive emotions that are destroying her life, to find the truth and with it release and a way forward. Whether she can ever truly forgive him is another matter - but the letters are her last, best hope.
My Review
Firstly, let me say this book is written in letter format, the whole way through. There are some dates but mostly they are just letters, more diary format as Ruth writes how she felt and what happened from the moment she finds out her daughter was brutally murdered. The letters clearly mark out, this is her getting her feelings out, her experience of it all and that she isn't expecting a reply. This is for her, to get it all down, in stages as she lives & relives what happened from finding out to the immediate aftermath.
It has been four years since the murder, Ruth is still consumed with anger, grief, rage, hurt and many more emotions. This is her way of working through that and towards acceptance, by penning it all down to both the killer and us, the reader. When the murder is covered, after the autopsy, it is very detailed in the brutality to the body, some readers may find this hard to read. If you have lost someone to murder or even just death this could be a hard book for you to read as Ruth's grief and emotion very much comes alive on the pages.
It is quite a weird one, not in the writing or anything but rather I haven't read anything like it before, or quite in that format. It is very cleverly put together, you can feel the raw emotion and devastation to the family, not just Ruth but to her grand daughter Florence, Ruth's ex husband and Lizzie's husband Jack. A gripping, emotive and sad story that draws you into from the very start to the very end. 4/5 for me this time, this is my first time reading this author and I would certainly read her again.
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This sounds like some powerful writing.
ReplyDeleteJust thinking of the power of such emotions on the page seems disquieting.
As you alluded to I think that I would have some difficulty making it through this book.
Great review of this book Lainy,
This sounds like a difficult read. I think it would be too much for me. Great post as always.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, alas, as you know I struggle with letter format so may well give this one a miss. Then again .....
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