Keep Her Quiet

Keep Her Quiet by Emma Curtis

Paperback, 432 pages

Expected Publication 17th September 2020 by Black Swan - eBook released today!

Shelves:  adult-fiction, arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, crime-thriller-mystery, favourites, read, read-in-2020, realistic-fiction, really-good

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Jenny has just given birth to the baby she’s always wanted. She’s never been this happy.

Her husband, Leo, knows this baby girl can’t be his. He’s never felt so betrayed.

The same night, a vulnerable young woman, Hannah, wakes to find her newborn lifeless beside her. She’s crazed with grief.

When chance throws Hannah into Leo’s path, they make a plan that will have shattering consequences for all of them.

Years later, a sixteen-year-old girl reads an article in a newspaper, and embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about herself. But what she learns will put everything she has ever known – and her own life – in grave danger. Because some people will go to desperate lengths to protect the secrets their lives are built on . . .

Books like this one are exactly why I read. This is a book that from the first few pages, I didn't want to put down. It's very rare for me to instantly become hooked into a book, but this one managed that with ease. Author Fanny Blake made a quote about this book - "This is grip-lit at it's best" - and I could not agree more.

Initially, I was intrigued by the premise of this book after watching the TV adaptation of another book, The Secrets She Keeps. The story had some similar ideas and after enjoying the TV show, I thought I might like reading about what sounded like a similar story. For those who were fans of that drama, you will certainly be gripped and enjoy this story - likely even more so. Whilst there were some similarities between the stories, this one was certainly original and had an even more interesting, multifaceted storyline which was more consuming. I would absolutely love to see this one adapted to TV or film one day.

It's quite hard to review this book without giving away any spoilers which I don't want to do - the book runs on tension and suspense. The entire book has substance, full of revelations and some twists and turns which genuinely made my jaw drop. There is so much that goes on in this book but it's never confusing, just exciting. The story is a real page-turner and the story is full of so many mixed emotions. The characters felt realistic and complex, particularly Leo, who was the real stand-out character in this book, in my opinion. Leo is a character unlike any other I've read about, he is so realistic and has such a complex, interesting psychology. Curtis has managed to create several realistic characters, all feeling very human, vulnerable and flawed in their own individual ways. 

After such an impressive, eventful story, I was curious as to how all of the events would be concluded. There was an epilogue to this book, which I was a little hesitant about but I am glad to say that it worked well and I was pleased with the ending of the book, most things were wrapped up - thankfully, it wasn't done idealistically, it felt realistic yet was still conclusive. I am so impressed that nothing fell short in this book - the storyline, the characters, the conclusion, everything seemed fantastically done.

Overall, as you can probably tell by my gushing review, this is a book that I will recommend to everyone. We all need something to entertain and distract us from the real world right now and this certainly does that. I can't wait to read more by Emma Curtis. An instant five stars - go and pre-order/buy this now!

Keep Her Quiet is released as an e-Book today!

My Life With Murderers

My Life With Murderers: Behind Bars With the World's Most Violent Men by David Wilson

Hardback, 272 pages

Published 21st March 2019 by Sphere

Shelves: crime-thriller-mystery, memoirs-biographies-etc, mental-health, non-fiction, read, read-in-2020

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Professor David Wilson has spent his professional life working with violent men - especially men who have committed murder. Aged twenty-nine he became, at that time, the UK's youngest ever prison Governor in charge of a jail and his career since then has seen him sat across a table with all sorts of killers: sometimes in a tense interview; sometimes sharing a cup of tea (or something a little stronger); sometimes looking them in the eye to tell them that they are a psychopath.

Some of these men became David's friends; others would still love to kill him.

My Life with Murderers tells the story of David's journey from idealistic prison governor to expert criminologist and professor. With experience unlike any other, David's story is a fascinating and compelling study of human nature.

Professor David Wilson is a relatively well known criminologist here in the UK and if you're interested in true crime, its quite likely that you've seen a documentary or two that he has featured in. I have enjoyed several of his documentaries and so that, alongside my true crime-fascination, inspired me to pick up this book. I'm glad I did!

Although there's nothing particularly groundbreaking or any new revelations in this book, it's a very interesting and worthwhile read. The book covers numerous issues relating to criminology and holds a lot of focus on the prison system and rehabilitation, particularly focusing on how Wilson thinks that the system could improve in order to help prisoners. His insights and opinions seemed fair and well thought through and I respect that he has had a lot of experience in that sector. 

What I found more interesting though was hearing about his experiences with criminals. I was a little disappointed that he didn't, or couldn't, go into more depth with each case, but I found that the little he did reveal quite interesting, if not sometimes surprisingly boastful in tone.

Disappointingly, I found that the book was more about the crimes that these people committed rather than his connection or communication with them - information that I'd imagine would be easy to find online or in other  books or documentaries. I found the book to be more about his research than his actual personal experiences with these people. 

Nonetheless, it was still interesting to read through several different criminal cases and I did keep wanting to read on to find out more. There were also some different aspects of murders and crime that were covered which I haven't read about before, such as analysing 'contract killing' which I found particularly interesting and surprising. 

Overall, this will be an informative and easily accessible read for those who have a fresh interest in true crime. The book covers quite a lot of topics without going into too much depth, allowing the way for the reader to choose their most interesting topics to research in depth later. It was a page turner at points and kept me interested with the diversity of subjects discussed. 

Cries Unheard: The Story of Mary Bell

Cries Unheard: The Story of Mary Bell by Gitta Sereny

Hardback, 416 pages

Published 13th April 1999 by Macmillan

Shelves: abuse, books-i-own, crime-thriller-mystery, memoirs-biographies-etc, mental-health, non-fiction, read, read-in-2020

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:In 1968, at the age of eleven, Mary Bell was tried, and convicted, of manslaughter after the death of two small boys in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Her friend, and neighbour, thirteen-year-old, Norma Bell, no relation, was acquitted. Gitta Sereny attended the trial, and spent the next two years researching, and writing, what has become a classic study, The Case of Mary Bell. Over the years, however, she came to realize that if we are ever to understand the pressures which bring a child to commit serious crimes, only they, when adult, can tell us.

Twenty-seven years after her conviction, and her sentence of detention for life, after her mother's death, Mary Bell agreed to talk about her harrowing childhood, her two terrible acts nine weeks apart, her public trial, and her twelve years of detention - seven of them, beginning when she was sixteen, in a maximum security women's prison.

Nothing she said in the five months of intensive talks with Gitta Sereny was intended, or can be taken, as an excuse for her crimes: she herself rejects all mitigation. But the story of her life forces the reader to ponder society's responsibility for children at breaking point. It challenges our willingness to commit ourselves to the prevention of violent acts such as Mary committed. It is a clarion call to review our system of justice, and punishment, as it applies to the most needy amongst us - our children at risk.

Cries Unheard is a brilliant tour de force, meticulously piecing together the terribly damaged life of Mary Bell, who only as an adult, and loving parent herself, grew to realize the moral enormity of her crimes. But it is not an isolated tragedy. There are thousands of children in prison across Europe, and in America. And in Britain, where punitive justice for children is most formalized, recent cases such as the murder of James Bulger show the urgency for our attention, our compassion, and our action.

Cries Unheard tells the story of Mary Bell, a girl who was only eleven years old when she was convicted of murdering two boys - aged 3 and 4. Most of my knowledge about Mary Bell comes from my grandmother who lived in the same area as Bell at the time of her crimes and knew both Bell and the victims families. The other knowledge comes from one TV documentary and the small amount of information about the case which is on the internet. Due to the locality of the case, I'm always wanting to learn more about it and this seems to be the most comprehensive book available about Bell. I have also been told that this book caused quite the stir in my hometown of Newcastle Upon Tyne. 

This is the second book that Gitta Sereny has written about Mary Bell, the first being The Case of Mary Bell: A Portrait of a Child who Murdered, which is referenced throughout this one. 

Quite honestly, the first book seems referenced a little too much - despite thankfully including all necessary information to the case and even including some excerpts. I did briefly consider reading the first book but in all honesty, after reading this one, I don't feel the need to - it doesn't seem like there's much more to learn. The book contains a lot of information about Mary Bell both before, during and, mostly, after her conviction which was good - I felt like we got a good insight into all aspects of her life. The book did have a good amount of information and I am glad I read it as I did find it interesting and I learnt a lot about Mary's life, the murders, the court trial and what happened afterwards. I am fairly confident I now have a good firm knowledge of the case, but of course, I can't  be sure that everything that I read was true. I am pleased that there were conversations with more reputable sources mentioned in the book - such as Bell's psychologist and mentors - which I am much more inclined to believe. 

This is somewhat of a biography of Bell, written by Sereny but interspersed with direct quotes from conversations with Bell after her release. The purely factual parts of the book and the information about Newcastle in the late 60's seems accurate and interesting. I think Sereny did a great job of setting the scene of the murders in the first half of the book and was especially good at describing what working class life in Scotswood was like.  The first section of the book was a useful, informative account of the crime.

In the second half of the book, it was certainly interesting to get insight about Mary and her life from the woman herself, to see how she communicates and thinks, but the problem about that is that she seems to be a prolific liar - something that is made clear in the book and can actually become quite frustrating. We read pages and pages of Bell's recollections, only for them to often then be quickly disproven by people that have been responsible for her care. It was very hard to understand what to believe about Mary and to be honest, the author didn't help. Despite her brief protestations, I also often felt like she seemed overly sympathetic to Bell and had been somewhat 'drawn in' by her. Sereny offers a lot of opinions on Bell's psychological state, none of which seem significant due to the sense of bias and the fact that Sereny is purely a journalist - not a psychiatrist, psychologist or criminologist. 

My main issue with this book was that, at points, it felt very disjointed. Although there is some sort of intended chronology in the book, the author has a tendency to jump around the timescale. I was particularly bewildered as to why Sereny decided to address Bell's early life at the end of the book - it would have made far more sense to include it at the beginning and it would've really helped to develop an understanding of Mary's actions and personality. I actually believe that I may have seen the whole situation in a different perspective if she had included that information at the beginning. 

Unfortunately, I was disappointed with several aspects of Cries Unheard but as aforementioned, I did also find it interesting and gained a lot of knowledge about Mary Bell and her life so far - I am glad that I read it despite its faults. If you're particularly interested in this case or are interested in what happens after a child is convicted of murder in the UK, this is worth a read. 

                      

From The Review Pile (95)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or if you don't receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

I know that a lot of you have a huge pile of books that you want to read/review, but it understandably takes a while to get around to reading them all - here you can give a book (or two!) some of the publicity that it deserves, even if you haven't read it yet!

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This week, I'm going to showcase The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale (#2) !

As a big fan of The Handmaid's Tale, I'm disappointed that I still haven't got my hands on a copy of The Testaments. I really enjoyed reading the first instalment of The Handmaid's Tale and I hope that this follow up is just as good (if not even better!). I've read some mixed reviews about this one but I'm glad to see that it won the Goodreads Choice award for fiction, which is extremely promising. I absolutely love watching the TV series so it will also be interesting to see the direction of the story before it hits the screen.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Hardback, 419 pages

Published 10th September 2019 by Penguin 

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.