Blacklands

Blacklands
Bok av Belinda Bauer
Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer ...
Det berör verkligen att få följa tolvåriga Steven i hans tankar och desperata strävan att reparera lite av smärtan som drabbat hans familj, år innan han själv föddes. Steven är precis som vilket barn som helst, som inte önskar mycket mer än uppmärksamhet och kärlek. Hans hopp om att en dag få känna detta är hjärtskärande.
Och porträttet av pedofilen och barnamördaren får mig att både koka och rysa.