We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker – Blog Tour Review.

About The Book

For fans of Jane Harper’s The Dry comes a powerful novel about the lengths we will go to keep our family safe. This is a story about good and evil and how life is lived somewhere in between.

Thirty years ago, Vincent King became a killer.

Now, he’s been released from prison and is back in his hometown of Cape Haven, California. Not everyone is pleased to see him. Like Star Radley, his ex-girlfriend, and sister of the girl he killed.

Duchess Radley, Star’s thirteen-year-old daughter, is part-carer, part-protector to her younger brother, Robin – and to her deeply troubled mother. But in trying to protect Star, Duchess inadvertently sets off a chain of events that will have tragic consequences not only for her family, but also the whole town. 

Murder, revenge, retribution.

‘You can’t save someone that doesn’t want to be saved . . .’

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. This is one of the hardest books I’ve ever had to review. You need to read this the way I did, with knowing little about what happens. 

I read a lot of books, in particular crime fiction. I can honestly say that I have never read a book quite like this before. It is crime fiction, but it’s crime fiction that shows the effect that crime has on those who are connected. Especially a young teenage girl called Duchess and her six year old brother Robin. 

The story switches between Duchess and Walk, police officer and friend of Vincent who has recently been released from prison. Walk has some major health concerns to deal with, which are not revealed until the end but I did have some idea of what they could be. It was the only part of this novel that I did work out. Everything else I did not see coming until the moment. Whilst I did like his story it was Duchess who captivated me. Practically every scene she appeared in. Her devotion to Star and Robin, her warming to her grandfather and friend Thomas and her insistence that she was an outlaw.

I often see the phrase ‘book hangover’ but have never experienced it myself until I read this book. I was left gazing into space, trying to come to terms with what I had just read knowing that my task of choosing the next book to read would be tough. 

Absolutely superb.

The author would have been appearing at First Monday Crime on 7th May but that has unfortunately had to be postponed due to the undoing situation. I read an ecopy arc of the book but chose to buy a hard back copy from an independent bookshop.