The
very first chapter makes it obvious that this is going to be a
confronting book. It is the twenty-first century, and we learn that
three people were brutally murdered twenty-five years previously in a
small farmhouse in Kansas in the 1980s and that the fifteen-year-old
son, Ben, was charged with their murders. The only other survivor of
the massacre, Libby, becomes the main narrator.
Libby’s
narration is a combination of her thoughts and, bit by bit, her
attempts to find out what actually happened that night when she was
only seven. She has always believed that Ben was guilty, but there
are people who believe he is innocent and would do anything at all to
have him released from prison.
Is
Ben innocent or
is
he guilty?
The
story that unravels in chapters alternating between 1985 and the
present day is full of leads all seemingly pointing in different
directions. Possible scenarios are built up and then destroyed as
more information becomes available; at all times the depressing gloom
emanating from the small impoverished town and more particularly from
the family itself drips from the pages. This is definitely not a
happy book.
It
is, however, particularly well written, and the way
Flynn
divides the story between the past and the present is cleverly
managed. At no time is there any confusion between the two time
periods.
In
the end, the reader is most probably left with a sense of despair
regarding present-day society. It is definitely a book that makes you
think about many different issues (not just murder), and a story that
will remain with you even after you have turned the last page and
closed the book.