Chris Whitaker – nigeladamsbookworm

This is one of those rare books that will stay with me for a long time.

The characters are incredibly well written with one in particular who managed to strike chord in me that no literary character ever has.

The story is set in a sleepy American town where, thirty years ago, a young girl was killed.

A youth, Vincent King, is tried as an adult, and given thirty years in prison, a term which is close to coming to an end.

The victim was the little sister of a girl he was in a relationship with. Her name is Star Radley and she is now a single mother with two children of her own.

It’s one of these children Duchess, a 13 years old girl who lives her life by the rules of the old Wild West outlaws that got to me. Quoting the outlaws way of life and history’s is the way she manages to put on a brave face, and boy does she need to.

Her mother is one of life’s victims, she drinks too much and has a bad taste in men, which often sees her returning home battered and bruised.

Duchess has a younger brother, and he is her world. She looks after him like his mother should.

Vincent Kings best friend growing up was “Walk” Walker, who is now Chief of the local police. He has always thought Vincent was hard done by, and that 30 years for murder was a harsh sentence for what was a drink drive hit and run.

But is he seeing things through rose tinted glasses. Was Vincent the kind youth that Walk remembers. Others certainly have a different opinion of him.

The sleepy little town hides a few secrets, and all of them seem to revolve around Star and Vincent.

Vincent still owns his childhood home, inherited after his incarceration. It may be run down but it sits on prime land. Land that a local businessman, Darke, is trying to develop.

Darke and Star have history.

When Star returns home one night having suffered another battering Duchess puts two and two together and seeks revenge on Darke.

From there on her life turns into a nightmare.

She tries to look out for her little brother but her revenge on Darke is coming back to bite her.

Meanwhile King is arrested for another murder shortly after his release from his thirty years in prison.

All the characters are good but there is something about Duchess that resonates with me. She is a captivating character who really pulls on the heart strings.

Again Walk is convinced of his innocence but he is the only one.

The story winds up to a fantastic end.

It’s a story of misguided loyalties, and misunderstandings, secrets and lies, and it is brilliant.

The entire story is good enough to recommend this book as one of the best I’ve read this year.

But Duchess’s story, within the book, is one that will stay with me.

Pages: 386. Publisher: Zaffre. Available Now. Audiobook Length 10 hours 29 minutes. Narrator: George Newbern

If ever the word epic was appropriate for a story, it’s for this book

At 580 pages it’s a tomb of a book but not one word is wasted.

Spread over three decades, and full of unpredictable but realistic twist, this is one hell of a story.

Two young misfit kids find themselves attracted to each other because they are almost outcast from the other children their age.

Patch, a one eyed boy who lives his childhood as a pirate, and Saint the geeky late developing girl.

A childhood friendship built on being two outsiders.

When Patch goes missing protecting a young girl from attack the police investigation soon peters out.

He’s alive and being kept in a dark cellar, but he’s not alone. There’s a young girl with him. A girl he can’t see in the dark, a girl that asks him to imagine her features by touching her face. She talks in strange quotes and try’s to educate him with her cryptic stories.

Her name is Grace.

Saint never gives up on Patch and through her amateur, childish investigations finally thinks she’s found him.

In the commotion that follows the Saint and the Police find Patch but there’s no sign of the girl he says was in the cellar with him.

Over the next three decades Patch devotes his life to finding Grace.

Over the same three decades Saint, who joins Law Enforcement tries to keep Patch out of trouble, and independently looks for Grace for her own reasons.

There’s no real spoilers in what I’ve written above. Patch’s abduction and his release happen fairly early in the book, the real story is what follows.

The characters in the book weave in and out of the plot around Patch and Saint.

The relationship between Patch and Saint is never really a “will they, won’t they” get together, it’s more the story of two best friends who love each other unconditionally but more as brother and sister.

It’s all about what each of them will do to prove that Grace existed. Patch because he thinks he loves her, and Saint because she is on the trail of a long dead killer.

This is my first Chris Whitaker book but, coincidentally, whilst I was reading it he was recommending to me by a fellow book worm.

She was talking about a book I’d read, a gothic fantasy novel, and I had said the second in that series was the same story as the first. We both love crime fiction and she said to me, aren’t all crime stories basically the same.

Many of them are, but this one definitely isn’t like any I’ve read before.

She’d found it and pointed me in Chris Whitakers direction.

Now I’m looking at his back catalogue.

Pages 580. Publisher Orion. Audiobook length 14 hours 37 minutes Narrator Edoardo Ballerini