THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING
Five of the best crime and thrillers of 2021
A chilling suspense novel about guilt, responsibility, and redemption.
Aneglected girl commits an unspeakable crime and, as an adult, wonders if she can find redemption.
British writer Tucker wastes no time grabbing the reader in her chilling debut novel. “I killed a little boy today. Held my hands around his throat, felt his blood pump hard against my thumbs. He wriggled and kicked....I roared. I squeezed.” The murderer is 8-year-old Chrissie, who is trying to navigate an unimaginably hard and lonely life. Her mother doesn’t feed her—Chrissie is quite literally starving—and tries to give her away. Her mostly absent father offers only empty promises. Chrissie finds relief in frenzied bursts of action that make her feel powerful: Acting as milk monitor at school (so she can drink the dregs from each bottle). Stealing candy from the shop. Bossing and bullying the neighborhood kids. Even strangling the little boy is her way of saying “I am here, I am here, I am here.” But the empathetic Tucker gives the adult Chrissie a voice, too: Twenty years later with a new name and a daughter of her own, Chrissie, now Julia, is out in the world again and struggling with guilt. She loves her daughter but doubts herself and fears authorities will take the girl away. The chapters alternate between the child and adult perspectives, and Tucker builds almost unbearable tension in both timelines as the police circle closer to young Chrissie and the past pulls adult Chrissie back to the scene of her crime. This novel is a riveting thriller in every sense, but Tucker is asking big questions, too. Can society forgive the unforgivable? Does everyone deserve a second chance? She forces us to reconsider the perils of poverty and neglect.
A chilling suspense novel about guilt, responsibility, and redemption.
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