One for Sorrow by Sarah A. Denzil
In this psychological thriller, justice isn’t completely served. The crimes are not motivated by vengeance. The protagonist is on the road to redemption and makes significant progress. Psychological thriller adequately describes it, especially since at least half of the story is spent in a psychiatric facility. This is book one of a three book series. The series is named after the antagonist, which in itself gives some indication of the direction of the novel.
Leah Smith is a psychiatric nurse who, along with her little brother, has moved from their hometown after the death of their parents. Most of the book is from Leah’s first-person point-of-view. There are several chapters titled “True Crime Junkie” that are blog posts from a man following the crime highlighted in the first “True Crime Junkie” chapter. The crime involves the death of a small child. The accused and convicted killer is a fourteen-year-old girl, Isabel Fielding. The story opens in the psychiatric facility where Isabel is incarcerated six years later. Leah becomes Isabel’s nurse.
It’s also hard to review this story without giving away too much. It starts slow. The first half of the story is setting the stage for the second half and the subsequent books. Plow through the first half and the reader is rewarded with the ending, which is intense and interesting. Ms. Denzil keeps the reader guessing as to the guilt of Isabel Fielding, much the same as Leah battles the same question. I liked the unreliable narrator. That’s all I’ll say about Leah. Several twists are revealed that we don’t see because Leah doesn’t realize them.
This book has an ending. It’s not THE END, but there is an ending and we get enough resolution to be satisfied. The setting is England, so of course, there are scenes on the moors. There is some profanity, though not too much. No on page sex. There is some goriness, but it adds to the suspense, so it’s not gratuitous.
Overall, it’s a good read, you just have to get through the first half. My one complaint is the psychology isn’t quite accurate. I’m not sure if it’s the author or the protagonist, but Leah interchanges sociopaths and psychopaths. Yes, they are both anti-social personality disorders, but they are not at all similar. They don’t have the same symptoms or etiology. I was also disappointed in not finding out the background of one of the serial killers, as just calling them a psychopath is not sufficiently accurate. There are many functioning psychopaths in society that are not killers.
I’ll rank this one twenty-second. Again, it’s a good story, but I’ve read a lot of great books this year.
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