The Wrong Hand by Jane Jago - Book Review

The Wrong Hand

by

Jane Jago

We all make mistakes. Moments that change us and the path we are on irrevocably.

For Rachel Allen it was the moment that she let her son's hand slip from hers. For Danny Simpson and Graham Harris it was the moment one of them took it.

Seven years ago Danny and Graham were just children themselves, angry, marginalized and unguided. That was, until they committed a crime so heinous that three families were left devastated. They were no longer just boys. They were monsters.

Released from juvenile detention, it is time for the boys, now men, to start again; new names, new people. But they can never escape who they are or what they did. And their own families, now notorious; the Allens, destroyed with grief; and the country at large have never been able to forget.

They will always be running. They will always be hiding. But are some mistakes too large, the ripples to far reaching, to outrun forever?

Thank you to NETGALLEY and Michael Jones/Penguin for this advance copy in return for an honest review.

The first thing that was obvious about this book was that despite it being set in Australia the events were almost a mirror image of the terrible events in Liverpool when Jamie Bulger went missing. This makes it a very, very difficult and emotive read.

The novel begins with Danny one of the boys imprisoned having to choose a new identity. He is given a book of baby names to choose from and is asked by his therapist to write down ten names. He is angered when none of his choices are taken in consideration and the fact he was asked to chose was to dismiss any names he may be associated with. The name Geoffrey is chosen for him, which he is not happy about.

We also meet Rachel and Matthew Allen, who are the parents of the child Benjamin who has been murdered. They have both has suffered abuse from the local community, because Rachel "let go of her son's hand" therefore allowing him in their eyes to be taken. They are now divorced and Rachel has remarried and has more children who she guards obsessively.

We next meet Liam (Graham) who is the other boy imprisoned for Benjamin's murder. He is now an estate agent and newly married to Catherine who has just announced she is pregnant. This strikes fear into Liam's heart as he doesn't want to be anywhere children, in fact he fears them. We find out this is not because he thinks he will harm them, but he cannot bear to think that someone may do to his child, what he did to someone else's.

I found some of this book difficult. I started reading one scene between Danny and Graham where they find a cat and her kitten. I guessed at what was coming and skipped the scenes, not wanting those images in my head.

The book flashes backwards and forwards between before the murder, the time of the murder, the boys incarceration and present day. We meet other characters including journalist Alex Reiser and Detective Kendall who are closely involved with trying to find out the new identities of the murderers.

All through the book I felt a little compassion with Graham/Liam as he seemed to be genuinely sorry for what he had done whereas Danny/Geoffrey seemed to look upon his past as an inconvenience that wasn't of his own doing. The point that children killing children is something that has happened for hundreds of years didn't make it any easier and I suppose there will always be some kind of morbid fascination as to why children kill other children. Is it right to look on these children as monsters? Is it their nature or nurture that shapes them? Some interesting points are raised in the book by the author.

The ending for me didn't "wrap up" the story and I was left with questions in my head. However I would recommend this book, but as I said it is hugely emotive.