Book #47: Little Deaths by Emma Flint
Little Deaths by Emma Flint
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At the start of the book, set in the 1960s, we are told that its heroine, Ruth Malone, is in prison, before it flashes back to explain the circumstances that put her there.
It turns out that Ruth has been accused of killing her children, after being in a custody battle for them following a divorce from her husband, Frank. All the evidence seems to be against her, particularly as she apparently has said she'd rather the children were dead than having to live with their father.
This is when the book's hero, newspaper reporter, Pete, shows up, and attempts to find out who the real killer is, believing Ruth to be innocent.
The whole book feels like the plot to an old noir film, with Ruth almost like a femme fatale character, who is slightly flawed herself; she is said to be sleeping with a lot of other men, on a regular basis, and Pete even listens outside the window to them at one point. Pete also seems to have a fondness for drinking scotch, and often turns to it in times of difficulty.
It turns out that this book is more of a critique of a justice system than a book about finding out who killed the children, so I found that it did not end in quite the way I expected it to. I don't really know exactly what circumstances were like for women in the 1960s, but this book would suggest that they weren't exactly brilliant. The ending does at least provide some hope for its main characters, after the killer is finally revealed.
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