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Tuesday, December 5, 2023
[New post] Little Deaths by Emma Flint #AVirtualCrimeBookClub @picadorbooks
J-LBRBSBLOGS posted: " Longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the CWA Gold Dagger Award Book blurb It's the summer of 1965, and the streets of Queens, New York shimmer in a heatwave. One July morning, Ruth Malone wakes to" Love Books, Read Books
Longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the CWA Gold Dagger Award
Book blurb
It's the summer of 1965, and the streets of Queens, New York shimmer in a heatwave. One July morning, Ruth Malone wakes to find a bedroom window wide open and her two young children missing. After a desperate search, the police make a horrifying discovery.
Noting Ruth's perfectly made-up face and provocative clothing, the empty liquor bottles and love letters that litter her apartment, the detectives leap to convenient conclusions, fuelled by neighbourhood gossip and speculation. Sent to cover the case on his first major assignment, tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke at first can't help but do the same. But the longer he spends watching Ruth, the more he learns about the darker workings of the police and the press. Soon, Pete begins to doubt everything he thought he knew.
Ruth Malone is enthralling, challenging and secretive – is she really capable of murder?
My thoughts
This should have been done a while ago but I suppose it's that time of year when things get in the way preparing for Christmas and quite a few birthdays in December and January. For this and the fact that I have a few outstanding thoughts to share on recent reads and with a blog tour post coming later this week this is going to be a shortish post.
At first I wasn't sure that I liked this book but as I got into it I felt that it was really interesting with a different perspective on a crime fiction story. We know that two young children go missing and are found dead. This book is based on an real life case. Set in the mid '60's in New York the book tells bits of what happened as it goes along. This is not usual as we soon realise that the police are not looking much further than the children's mother, Ruth Malone, as the murderer.
We learn a bit about her, the children and the father. Mother and father are separated. Ruth is bringing up the children on her own, she works and has quite an active social life. She drinks, she smokes and basically doesn't conform to the rules/standards/expectations of society in particular her neighbours and the police. One person, however, Pete Wonicke, a journalist, has his doubts about whether Ruth is the guilty party. He investigates and uncovers some damming evidence regarding the police.
Nevertheless, Ruth is ultimately charged. Did she murder her children? Well the author gives us a good possibility on what happened, who the murderer was and why they did it for this story. In real life it was not so cut and dried.
There is a good article in The Washington Post that gives a brief overview of the real case which was really never satisfactorily solved.
Why was I hesitant about this book at first? Well it was a story of its time when a woman who behaved in a way that was deemed wrong by society - the Police, the public and press - was painted as a bad mother who wanted rid of her children in order to live a freer lifestyle. No one else was considered because of this, no real evidence and no proper investigation. It put my hackles up until, of course, I simply had to remember that this was set in 1965. This would be the mindset of the men who had the power, in this instance the police, to make decisions based as much if not more on their own attitudes as any actual evidence.
This was an interesting book, well written and which created a great atmospheric read for the setting in Queens during a heatwave. The characters were believable and well drawn, the story draws you in slowly but certainly and you are gripped. This is a book well worth reading.
Book: Purchased
A Virtual Crime Book Club
Little Deaths by Emma Flint was The Virtual Crime Book Club November read. (The book club is every 4 weeks so the November meeting fell at the end of October.)
You can watch the video below and the theme for next month is cold cases. Voting takes place up to 3 Nov for club members. To join the book club, you can find details HERE.
⚠️Do be aware there will be spoilers so, if you are reading the book, take a look afterwards.⚠️
If you would like to see the other meetings please go to A Virtual Crime Book club on YouTube we're you can find all of the recordings.
⚠️Do be aware there will be spoilers so, if you are reading the book, take a look afterwards.⚠️
We will be choosing our next book shortly so if you'd like to join go to Rebecca's website for more information.
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.
Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack.
Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making – with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband – until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .
The next meeting is 8 p.m. GMT on Monday 27th November. (Adjustments may be made in December/January due to the holiday season.)
Information
Publisher: Picador; Main Market edition (12 Jan. 2017) | Picador is the literary imprint at Pan Macmillan |ISBN 9781509826582 | 320 pages
Author: Emma Flint grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, and has been writing fiction since she knew what stories were. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews with an MA in English Language and Literature, later completing a novel-writing course at the Faber Academy. She worked in Edinburgh for four years, and now lives in north London.
Since childhood, she has been drawn to true crime stories, developing an encyclopaedic knowledge of real-life murder cases. She is equally fascinated by notorious historical figures and by unorthodox women – past, present and fictional.
All of these themes informed and inspired Little Deaths, a heady blend of sex, murder, obsession, noir and a femme fatale. Set in 1960s suburban New York, the novel re-tells a horrifying true story with a modern feminist slant.
Little Deaths, was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, for the Desmond Elliott Prize, for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award, and for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize.
Her second novel, which is also a re-telling of a true story, this time about a love triangle which ends in murder. Set in 1920s London, it explores shame, evil, and the power of fantasy and obsession. Published by Picador 23 February 2023.
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