 Show It’s the season when all the crime, mystery, and thriller awards are just about in. The lists always reveal one or two gems missed in the past year, like Chris Whitaker’s We Begin at the End. The book was named the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for 2021 at Harrogate; won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year; and was selected as a best thriller of the year by the Guardian, the Express, and i, among others. This audio version is narrated by George Newbern with absolute fidelity to the different characters and where their heads are in the moment. One of the protagonists is Chief Walker, whom everyone calls Walk, the long-time police chief of Cape Haven, a small town on the California coast. Walk, in his mid-40s, tries hard to keep his community from changing. In fact, he’d prefer to go back in time about 30 years to before the hit-and-run in which his best friend Vincent King killed seven-year-old Sissy Radley. Vincent received a 10-year sentence at an adult prison, with 20 more tacked on when he killed another inmate in a fight. The novel starts just before Vincent is released from prison and Walk is bringing him home to what will likely be a chilly welcome. Before he can reclaim his friend, Walk is approached by two children – Duchess Radley, 13, and her brother Robin, five. Their mother has overdosed again, and Walk helps them get her to the hospital. Star Radley, the older sister of the child Sissy, has been going off the deep end with increasing frequency. When they were all teenagers, Star and Vincent were a couple, part of a foursome that included Walk and Martha May, and Walk remains deeply loyal to both Star and Vincent. During Vincent’s long absence, Star’s attractiveness hasn’t gone unnoticed. The town butcher lives across the street and is constantly doing unasked-for favours; the next-door neighbour has asked her out many times, always unsuccessfully; and the local wheeler-dealer real estate developer is chasing her too. If she won’t date him, maybe she’ll at least convince the returning Vincent to sell the developer his family home, located in a prime coastal location. The other main character is Star’s daughter, Duchess, who styles herself an outlaw and goes about proving it. Foul-mouthed and take-no-guff, Duchess has an uncritical eye only for her brother. He has a lioness defending him. Tragedy strikes, and Vincent King is once more accused of murder. He won’t say a word in his defense, despite Walk’s pleading, except that he wants Walk’s former girlfriend, Martha May, to defend him. She’s a family lawyer in a town some distance away, estranged from Walk after a difficult breakup many years before. Approaching her about Vincent’s case is a difficult journey into the past for them both. Criminal law isn’t her specialty, but Vincent won’t consider anyone else. Duchess and Robin are sent to live in Montana with Star’s father, the grandfather they’ve never met, and Duchess is determined not to like him or the ranch or Montana or her new school or anything else. You ache to see her fighting the relationships that would be good for her. You’ve probably known teenagers like this; perhaps you were one yourself. The story includes many strong secondary characters, as well – the grandfather, an older woman named Dolly, Duchess’s one friend, Thomas Noble, their social worker. Many of them are actually quite admirable. Even most of the characters who do bad things are fully developed and drawn with compassion. Having been police chief of the same small town for so many years, Walk has seen Cape Haven’s residents in good times and on their worst days, which has fostered a nuanced view of human nature. Not a roller-coaster of a thriller, this book is more like a slow train through the dark woods. The journey includes plenty of twists and turns and hazards, both physical and emotional, as it steadily, inexorably, moves forward. If you take that train ride, you’ll find it’s both moving and memorable. There’s a small, but telling reveal near the end that stopped me, even though it had been in front of me all the time. Also see All the Wicked Girls by the same author. Zaffre CFL Rating: 5 Stars
Book Blurb. 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? Book Review. I won a copy of this book through Readers First. Thirty years ago Vincent King, then aged fifteen-years-old was convicted of killing seven-year-old Sissy Radley and now, he is finally set to be released from jail and will return home, to the small town of Cape Haven. No matter how far behind you it is, you can’t escape from or, run from the past and it will always be there a part of, haunting and shaping you. For the small-town community, the killing is a tragedy that has transcended time and that is still felt in the present. The death shattered those involved and even though the pieces have been put back together, the cracks and the scars still remain. The two main characters in We Begin at the End and who we see the story unfold through are thirteen-year-old Duchess Day Radley and Chief Walker/Walk the Chief of Police in Cape Haven who are ably supported by a cast of believable, well-drawn, colourful, fractured and flawed characters. Duchess looks after her younger brother, five-year-old Robin and mostly, she takes on the role of mother as their actual mother Star isn’t really up to the job of motherhood as she is in a constant battle with her demons. Duchess is protective of Robin and Whitaker has crafted such a brilliant relationship between the two siblings with the barbed wire of Duchess being blunted with Robin and her softer side, her vulnerability coming through towards him. Duchess classes herself as an ‘outlaw’. She is determined, tenacious, tough, resilient and far older than her years as she had to grow up very young. She is spirited, stitched together and there is an intensity to her, she is a storm and a fire burns inside her. Walk is the opposite he is calm, measured, set in his ways and staid. Walk is a good person, honest, Vincent and Walk were childhood friends, the best of friends, not born of the same blood but brothers and for thirty years he has carried the weight of the past around with him. Whitaker has a poetic way with words and We Begin at the End is a beautifully written and masterful display of storytelling. There are deep sadness, drama, intrigue and moments of humour that are laugh-out-loud funny with plentiful sentences and passages throughout that are packed with emotion, pain and meaning. Cape Haven and Montana are the settings where the story takes place and both are vivid and evocative with some picturesque descriptions of the locations on display by Whitaker. We Begin at the End is a dark and evocative book that features a mournful, poignant and emotionally charged story of broken people living broken lives. The story told shows the struggle to survive and that life is full of hardship and pain. It is a story of actions and their consequences, of love and loss, of sadness and sorrow, of bad choices and second chances and of remorse and regrets, revenge and redemption. There are also motes of hope, of compassion and of light penetrating the darkness included. As you reach the end Whitaker leaves you with a warm feeling that even fractured souls can mend, that you can find what you’ve been missing, what you’ve never had, what has been lost to you and of colour returning to the lives of some of those involved in the tragic events that you have witnessed. The story told by Whitaker is emotionally charged and character-driven. It is not fast-paced, it is a slow-cooked story that simmers, that takes its time, that doesn’t rush, that gives you ample opportunity to become acquainted with the characters and that deserves to be savoured. It is one of those layered, powerful and weighted stories that rank high on the emotional scale. It is a story that reaches out, that touches you within, that breaks you a little, that you won’t soon forget, that will linger and that will stay with you long after you have turned the final page. We Begin at the End is classed as a thriller but, saying that it is ‘just a thriller’ does the book a disservice and it is something so much more. I cannot rate it highly enough, it is genuinely moving, a remarkable work of literature and absolutely stunning. We Begin at the End is not simply a book that you read, it is a journey, an experience and as you walk beside the characters, as you see through their eyes and feel their pain it is a story that you live, breathe and you will care. You will care about the story, about those involved and you will care so much about Duchess Day Radley who, for me, is the tattered and torn outlaw heart of We Begin at the End. Purchase We begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. Amazon UK / Book Depository Follow The Tattooed Book Geek: Twitter, Goodreads, Blog Facebook, Personal Facebook Who are the characters in the book We Begin at the End?The two main characters in We Begin at the End and who we see the story unfold through are thirteen-year-old Duchess Day Radley and Chief Walker/Walk the Chief of Police in Cape Haven who are ably supported by a cast of believable, well-drawn, colourful, fractured and flawed characters.
Who was the killer in We Begin at the End?Thirty years ago, when Vincent King was just fifteen years old, he accidentally killed seven-year-old Sissy Radley, the younger sister of his girlfriend Star Radley. Vincent was tried as an adult and spent thirty years in prison.
How Old Is Duchess in We Begin at the End?Duchess is the thirteen-year-old, wannabe outlaw, beating heart of the story. She is stoic and heroic, hot-headed and humorous and unflinchingly protective of her broken family. I think we are, by our nature, good.
What happened to star in We Begin at the End?As Vincent settles into his life to begin again, he is still weighted by his past mistake. Then one night Star is murdered and every bit of evidence points to Vincent. Walk does not believe it, but Vincent will not defend himself.
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We Begin at the End List of characters
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