#BlogTour ‘We Begin At The End ‘ by Chris Whitaker

About the book…

With the staggering intensity of James Lee Burke and the absorbing narrative of Jane Harper’s The Dry, We Begin at the End is a powerful novel about absolute love and 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.

‘YOU CAN’T SAVE SOMEONE THAT DOESN’T WANT TO BE SAVED . . .’

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.

How far can we run from the past when the past seems doomed to repeat itself?

With the biggest of thanks to blog tour supremo Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for my gifted ebook copy of ‘We Begin At The End’ by Chris Whitaker, welcome to the book which will break your heart.

There was massive buzz around this title which built to a crescendo over the course of 2019, and I totally bought into it as having read ‘All The Wicked Girls’, I knew us booklovers were in for something special. And oh boy did I underestimate the effect that this one had on me. By turns lyrical, haunting and desperately sad, it is underpinned by a thread of humanity, love and hope which keeps us all going, and seems relevant now, more than ever.

I started reading it as a crime novel- it begins, after all, with the police and community of Cape Haven looking for a missing girl. You don’t need graphic details of a crime scene to realise the wrenching in your stomach of hopelessness, when it is so well portrayed by the finding of a small shoe.

Fast forward 30 years, and the killer of the little girl, Vincent King, is about to be released from prison. 30 years might as well have been 30 days for the resentment, anger and restlessness which swirls around this crime still resonantes. The main protagonist, Chief Walker -or Walk- has spent his time as a police officer keeping a close eye on the sister of the murdered girl, Star. With addiction issues and multiple suicide attempts under her belt, her 2 children -Duchess and Robin-are a fiercely loyal unit, bounded by tragedy.

Looked upon with pity, but very rarely helped, they stand out as both pariahs and reminders of their bloody history.

These 2 children will linger well after finishing the book, they jump under your skin as real, flesh and blood creations that are both older and younger than they should be due to experiences they should not have gone through.

Vinvent King, the man who killed their aunt Sissy, hits town like a hurricane. Picked up by childhood best friend Walk, he has to set foot again in a world that has spent 30 years building up a deep well of anger, resentment and blame as well as fending off offers to sell his house and land.

His innocence or guilt is not the focus of the story, what is is the exquisitely rendered portait of small town American life, the characters which inhabit it and the circuitous way that events play themselves out. The finding of the body is not the end of the story, it is the beginning of a ripple that like a pebble skimmed on a lake, extends way further than the thrower anticipates.

From the name of the town, Cape Haven, which should represent a place of safety, to the endlessly patient and world weary Walk,the hopelessly unreachable Star…even the character names are so conscientiously picked that you can see just how much work, how much love has gone into a book where the author knows the characters inside and out. They are not paper dolls, they are not stereotypes, they are fully fleshed and breathing people who, once you turn the first page, will stay with you for a lifetime.

A truly wonderful and remarkable book, I cannot recommend this any higher as a must-read for 2020.

About the author…

Chris Whitaker was born in London and spent ten years working as a financial trader in the city.
His debut novel, Tall Oaks, won the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger.
Chris’s second novel, All The Wicked Girls, was published in August 2017. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and two young sons.

Twitter @WhittyAuthor @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n

Links-https://www.compulsivereaders.com/