Little Deaths
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
‘Absolutely riveting’ The Guardian
‘Heart-pounding’ Elle
‘Excellent’ The Times
It's the summer of 1965, and the streets of Queens, New York shimmer in a heatwave. One July morning, Ruth Malone wakes to find a bedroom window wide open and her two young children missing.
It's every mother's worst nightmare. But Ruth Malone is not like other mothers . . .
Noting Ruth's perfectly made-up face and provocative clothing, the empty liquor bottles and love letters that litter her apartment, the detectives leap to convenient conclusions, fuelled by neighbourhood gossip and speculation. Sent to cover the case on his first major assignment, tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke at first can't help but do the same. But the longer he spends watching Ruth, the more he learns about the darker workings of the police and the press. Soon, Pete begins to doubt everything he thought he knew.
Ruth Malone is enthralling, challenging and secretive - is she really capable of murder?
Haunting, intoxicating and heart-pounding, Little Deaths by Emma Flint is a gripping novel about love, morality and obsession, exploring the capacity for good and evil within us all. From the author of Other Women.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Emma Flint’s blistering debut is inspired by the case of Alice Crimmins, who was accused of murdering her two children in 1965. Here, Crimmins—who was found guilty of the deaths on three separate occasions—becomes Ruth Malone, another New York mother suspected of killing her own kids. Like great ‘60s noir, Little Deaths is a deeply intoxicating read, but it’s also infused with heart-rending portrayals of loneliness and guilt. We galloped through the novel's pages to discover the truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
One of New York City's classic tabloid crime cases cocktail waitress Alice Crimmins's controversial conviction for the 1965 murders of her two young children becomes the springboard for British author Flint's affecting, achingly beautiful debut. That Ruth Malone, a separated single mom, leads an active sex life, including trysting with married men while her five-year-old Frankie Jr. and four-year-old Cindy remain home alone, locked in their bedroom, makes her the only suspect police seriously look into after her estranged husband reports the youngsters missing. And yet the deeper that fledgling crime reporter Pete Wonicke digs into the story, the more he becomes convinced that while Ruth may be guilty of many things, killing her kids isn't among them. Eschewing easy answers or Perry Mason miracles, Flint focuses squarely on Ruth's stiflingly straitened life in working-class Queens, close enough to gaze at the bewitching lights of Manhattan yet distant enough to feel marooned in another galaxy. This stunning novel is less about whodunit than deeper social issues of motherhood, morals, and the kind of rush to judgment that can condemn someone long before the accused sees the inside of a courtroom.
