Books Read: Cath Staincliffe - Letters to my Daughter's Killer

Grandmother Ruth Sutton writes to the man she hates more than anyone else on the planet: the man who she believes killed her daughter Lizzie in a brutal attack four years earlier. Ruth's burden of grief and hatred, has only grown heavier with the passing of time, her avid desire for vengeance ever stronger. In writing to him Ruth hopes to exorcise the corrosive emotions that are destroying her life, to find the truth and with it release and a way forward. Whether she can ever truly forgive him is another matter - but the letters are her last, best hope.

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Cath Staincliffe's Letters to my Daughter's Killer is a emotionally driven tale told through the narration of letters from the mother of a murder victim to her daughter's killer.  At first the reader doesn't know who he is but over time it soon becomes clear and her vent-up feelings and frustration unfold on the pages as she expresses how she feels in the period leading up to and during his trial.

What I found intriguing the most about this story was the concept of the drama unfolding through letters, I wasn't sure whether this would work as it is a singular point of view of events.  But it definitely did work as you get a real sense of everything Ruth was dealing with, the loss of her daughter, the shock of discovering the killer's identity, her need to get justice for her daughter and her struggles at having to help her young granddaughter come to terms with everything that has happened.

There is no real mystery or twist to this story as it's fairly obvious what the outcome will be but what you will get is a beautifully written, thought provoking read that is packed full of raw emotion.

I'd like to thank Grace at Constable & Robinson for sending me a proof copy of this book to review.