"Let Him Have it, Chris"

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There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.” Alife awakens to the cries of his twin girls proclaiming there is a man in their bedroom. When none can be found he chalks it up to childish nightmares and nothing more. When the presence of this strange figure lingers in the daytime he decides it must be a figment of their young imaginations and a coping mechanism after the recent loss of their mother. But what is he is wrong? Bentley was originally scheduled to be hanged on 30 December 1952 but this was postponed to allow for an appeal. Bentley's lawyers filed appeals highlighting the ambiguities of the ballistic evidence, Bentley's mental age and the fact that he did not fire the fatal shot. Bentley's appeal was heard on 13 January 1953 and was unsuccessful. The text made such a profound impact on me that I had difficulty sleeping, and I felt as though I wasn't alone in the room while reading it, heightening my overall experience. Both boys were tried for the murder of PC Miles at the Old Bailey, over three days in December 1952. The crime was then a capital offence, but as Craig was under 18 when he shot Miles, he avoided the possibility of a death sentence.

I feel like we see the unsettling twins and imaginary friend trope a lot in horror, however, it can still creep me out when it's done right, and it was in this one! There were a number of moments in this that put me on edge and genuinely gave me a little spook. I also really like grief as a topic in horror, I feel like it adds an element of unreliability to the characters, which is another thing I enjoyed in this.⁠ I can recommend it for readers who enjoyed Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, as it has the same chilling vibe, slow build up and strange characters. A truly remarkable debut and an author that needs to be watched. Maxwell Fyfe, in the words of the letter sent out, failed to discover any sufficient ground to justify him in advising Her Majesty to interfere in the due course of the law.The older boys first noticed the child when he resisted. There was a group of little boys urging him forward and he did not want to go. He was a shrimp of a boy, about six years old, and one side of his face was blotted out by a mulberry-colored birthmark. He stood now, warped out of the perpendicular by the fierce light of publicity, and he bored into the coarse grass with one toe. He was muttering and about to cry.

His voice lifted into the whine of virtuous recrimination. They stirred and began to shout him down. Lillian and Iris Bentley mother and sister of Derek the day before his execution (Image: Mirrorpix)

The Bentley case became a cause célèbre and led to a 40-year-long campaign to win Bentley a posthumous pardon, which was granted in 1993, and then a further campaign for the quashing of his murder conviction, which occurred in 1998. Bentley's case is thus considered a case of miscarriage of justice alongside that of Timothy Evans, and pivotal in the successful campaign to abolish capital punishment in the United Kingdom. Overall, the book was an emotional rollercoaster that evoked feelings I never thought possible. Without a doubt, I would rate it a perfect 10.