I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

While this book contains many interesting true crime cases, while Kirby gives great detail of these cases, his writing is dry, unengaging and doesn't flow well, it reads like a crime report, not a true crime book. A large portion of this book is focused on the case of the murder of Muriel McKay.

This debut novel is set in rural Louisiana in the early 1900s, which is something as a non-American I had next to no knowledge of previously. 

This took a long time for me to get into as I felt we're introduced to a large number of characters at once and the pacing and plot felt disjointed and was confusing at times. I enjoyed the camaraderie between the characters and the overarching sense of hope and light in the darkness.

Overall an enjoyable read.