Kristine S. Ervin was just eight years old when her mother, Kathy Sue Engle, was abducted from an Oklahoma mall parking lot and violently murdered in an oil field. First, there was grief. Then the desire to know: what happened to her, what she felt in her last terrible moments, and all she was before these acts of violence defined her life. In her mother's absence, Ervin tries to reconstruct a woman she can never fully grasp-from her own memory, from letters she uncovers, and the stories of other family members. As more information about her mother's death comes to light, Ervin's drive to know her mother only intensifies, winding its way into her own fraught adolescence.
A devastating account from the other side of murder, outlining in stark detail the trauma we fail to recognize when we consume tragedy as entertainment ... Ervin writes with painful clarity about the instability of a childhood defined by public tragedy ... She is particularly skillful at examining the conflict inherent in commodifying female sexuality — while simultaneously punishing women for being looked at.
Heartfelt ... It’s a painful unearthing, one even a gifted writer can find difficult to capture in words, and throughout the book Ervin grapples with doubt about how deep to dig ... This daughter’s tribute will stand as a passionate, powerful memorial.
This may be the best way true crime should be written, with nuance and unfettered compassion and with the words of the living victims or their families at the center.
