
Published by Hachette Books on January 17th 2017
Pages: 311
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It's 1965 in a tight-knit working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, and Ruth Malone--a single mother who works long hours as a cocktail waitress--wakes to discover her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing. Later that day, Cindy's body is found in a derelict lot a half mile from her home, strangled. Ten days later, Frankie Jr.'s decomposing body is found. Immediately, all fingers point to Ruth.
As police investigate the murders, the detritus of Ruth's life is exposed. Seen through the eyes of the cops, the empty bourbon bottles and provocative clothing which litter her apartment, the piles of letters from countless men and Ruth's little black book of phone numbers, make her a drunk, a loose woman--and therefore a bad mother. The lead detective, a strict Catholic who believes women belong in the home, leaps to the obvious conclusion: facing divorce and a custody battle, Malone took her children's lives.
Pete Wonicke is a rookie tabloid reporter who finagles an assignment to cover the murders. Determined to make his name in the paper, he begins digging into the case. Pete's interest in the story develops into an obsession with Ruth, and he comes to believe there's something more to the woman whom prosecutors, the press, and the public have painted as a promiscuous femme fatale. Did Ruth Malone violently kill her own children, is she a victim of circumstance--or is there something more sinister at play?
Inspired by a true story, Little Deaths, like celebrated novels by Sarah Waters and Megan Abbott, is compelling literary crime fiction that explores the capacity for good and evil in us all.
I was so excited to begin this this book. I knew that it was based on a true story story but it was one I was unfamiliar with. I made the conscious decision not to do any research on the case prior to reading this fictionalized version.
As you can probably tell from my rating, I had several problems with the book. The first is that it was really quite boring. It just dragged on until the very last chapters. There were several points at which I almost gave up but I kept on in the hopes that things would pick up. I was truly surprised when it did not. This is, after all, a book about the murder of two children. What I’m sure made for a very compelling news story simply didn’t translate well into a novel for me.
The second problem I had was related to the way the mother of the children, Ruth Malone, was described in the book. It is often mentioned that she teased her hair, wore too much make-up (her mouth was referred to as “sticky” with lipstick), dressed provocatively, wore cheap perfume, smoked, drank, etc. The picture I conjured in my head was one of a cheap-looking, garishly made-up woman. And that would have been fine except for the way men seemed to react to her. There was no man who didn’t immediately fall under her spell. They were falling all over themselves to get to her. Especially Pete Wonicke, the rookie newspaper reporter assigned to her case. After a while I was just like c’mon, really?? As it turns out, Alice Crimmins, the woman who was the actual murder suspect in the murder of her two children, was actually quite beautiful. I’m not sure why the author chose to exaggerate these characteristics to the extend she did. Ultimately, it made Ruth’s character less believable to me.
Both the Alice Crimmins and Ruth Malone were judged to be guilty in the court of public opinion and this was one part of the book that I thought worked well and seemed very realistic. It brought to mind the cases of Susan Smith and Casey Anthony, both of which I followed closely at the time of their trials.
Though this book was a disappointment to me, I would not dismiss Emma Flint as an author. In fairness, I like the way she wrote. I just didn’t happen to like what she wrote in this book.
This is the 3rd book I’ve read from my 2017 Mount TBR Challenge!
Thanks to Hachette Books for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Oh no! From the synopsis this sounds like it could have been a wild ride of suspense and twists but was more like a merry-go-round… I hate when I contemplate DNFing a book and stick it out hoping it will get better and it never does lol
Ha! A merry-go-round! That’s quite accurate, actually. 😄 Though I hate to DNF any book, I will think twice about finishing a book I feel this way about in the future. There are just too many good books in my TBR.
Oy. How disappointing. I’m impressed that you kept going! I would have given up– but I’m a big fan of the DNF review, personally. I don’t think bloggers do that often enough! I hope that your next book is a 5 star. 🙂
I think you’re right. I’m always hesitant to DNF. And 95% of the time, I’m sorry I didn’t. I think I have a little FOMO too. There’s always a chance that it’ll get better and I’ll miss out – that sort of thing. Do you post that you DNF the book? I have at times and but not always…
I don’t post reviews for all the books I read, but I will post DNF reviews occasionally. My blog is only about a year old, so I only have one DNF review on there. But I have quite a few DNFs on Goodreads. I want to make more of an effort to post my DNFs– particularly if they are amazing books I can’t get through (I struggle with graphic violence and abuse; sometimes I get caught unexpectedly with books) or an absolutely terrible book.
I have FOMO with hyped books. But, in most cases, I’ll read the first book entirely so I can speak to why I dislike it so much, and then not read the rest of the series (GoT and Mortal Instruments, I’m looking at you).
Hello Ann Marie! My goodness, I am impressed that you kept reading this disappointing book… I hope that you will enjoy the next book. Have a great weekend 🙂