“When a shocking murder occurs in the home of Angie and David Sheehan, their lives are shattered. Desperate to defend their family, they turn to small-town lawyer Martine Dumont for help, but Martine isn’t just legal counsel—she’s also the mother of Angie’s first love, Julian, a now-successful New York City criminal defense attorney. As Julian and Angie confront their shared past and long-buried guilt from a tragic accident years ago, they must navigate their own culpability and the unresolved feelings between them.”
Penitence, Kristin Koval
Right off the bat, this is a heartbreaking story. We follow two timelines. One, in the current day, where Angie has two children, Nico and Nora, and one when Angie was in high school, college, and early twenties. In the present, 13-year-old Nora has just been charged with killing 14-year-old Nico. Nico had recently been diagnosed with Hunington’s, and because Nora claims not to remember anything, no one knows if it was a mercy killing. Angie’s husband, David, ends up hiring her ex-boyfriend, Julian, as Nora’s lawyer.
While the current timeline follows Nora’s progress through the justice system, the focus is more on each character’s development than about the crime itself. There are only a few chapters from Nora’s point of view, and none of them focus on the why or how of Nico’s death. Instead, we spend time with each character, learning about how this crime and other connected experiences have affected them.
The overall story is haunting and thought-provoking, but slow-paced and character-driven. There are a lot of moral questions brought up without clear answers, and Koval didn’t shy away from making her characters complicated and nuanced. While the plot kept me invested, I felt a little led on with the lack of answers we got. The book is technically a mystery and I was hoping for more resolution after so much emotional turmoil.
This book was well-written and intriguing, but it’s not something I’d recommend just picking up on a whim. There’s a lot of discussion about moral quandaries, the death of children, and other dark topics. But if you’re in a place where you can handle it, I highly recommend this!
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the free advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review!
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