Penance

Almost a decade ago 16 year old Joan Wilsons brutal murder rocked the English beachside town of Crow On Sea. Journalist Alec Z Carelli is on a quest to investigate Joan’s horrific murder and  speaks to everyone who knew her from family, friends, investigators to the murderers themselves. This book tackles true crime and how it can be an unhealthy obsession and there were lots of times tumblr was mentioned which thank goodness I was not a part of.

Pros

The idea definitely grabbed me. I like mysteries and trying to discern whats true and what isn’t and about how true crime an turn into an unhealthy obsession and how focus on the murders and murderers instead of the victims who suffered.

Cons

Unfortunately the cons outweighed the pros. I wondered while I was reading this book, “Was this a rough draft that someone forgot to edit?” The book seemed disorganized. At times you couldn’t tell who was speaking with who. What I also didn’t like was this drew heavily from the Shanda Sharer murder case that happened in Indiana in 1992. If you’re really curious about Shanda’s murder I suggest doing a Google search.

 Overall

I think if this book were edited more and it was written differently maybe I would have enjoyed it more. I also didn’t like that it was taken heavily from Shanda Sharer’s murder but made to be in England in 2016. Thank you Heather Drucker for the early copy. Penance is available to order now.