Happy publication day (3rd August) to ‘I Did It For You’ by Amy Engel!
Having enjoyed ‘The Roanoke Girls’, I was pleased to be granted an early copy of ‘I Did It For You’ for review. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, HQ Stories – as always, opinions are my own.
This story follows a young woman, Greer Dunning, who returns to her small home town in Kansas. She has been away for over a decade, having left after the murder of her sister, Eliza, for which crime a man was executed. Greer finds her home unchanged in many ways – her family and close friends are there, the town’s rhythms are the same – but a new murder has shaken the inhabitants. The slaughter of a young couple in the same place as Eliza’s murder 14 years previously has raised the prospect of a copycat killer – and Greer finds herself wondering whether justice was truly done for her sister’s death.
What Amy Engel does absolutely brilliantly in this novel is give a sense of the small town environment, packed with secrets, lies and old resentments. Everyone knows everyone else’s business and the result is a claustrophobic, intense nightmare lying beneath the seemingly innocent small-town America setting. There are corrupt law enforcers, criminals who have got away with their misdeeds, alcoholics and those living with huge secrets. Dropping Greer Dunning into this mix – after a period of relative anonymity in the big city of Chicago – is inspired as it forces the reader (along with Greer) to work out the dynamics of the town. It isn’t clear at all who can be trusted.
To a British reader, there’s also something quite seductive about the simplicity of a small-town American childhood as described in this novel. There’s a heavy dose of nostalgia in here for the open Kansas skies, the hot summer days, the drive-in movies, the freedom and the intense friendships of youth. As I grew up somewhere considerably less lovely and a whole lot less hot, I enjoyed the rose-tinted view of Greer and Eliza’s past – and felt a real yearning for what had been lost.
Alongside the ‘whodunit’ element of the murder mystery (which is excellent). there is something much subtler and more tragic in Engel’s depiction of the family’s grief at losing Eliza. It’s a loss that can’t be computed, so it is heartbreaking to see the impact on the community and especially Eliza’s family even after so many years. It is through this lens of grief that Greer unpacks the events of the fateful summer before Eliza’s death, something that is at once affecting and cleverly done as Greer’s perception doesn’t always match the experiences of others.
I liked the character of Greer as she had an immense strength given what she had to face. As she built and rebuilt her alliances in town, I found myself holding my breath as I questioned her choices about who to trust. I genuinely wanted her to succeed – although the depth of her grief made it unclear what this could ultimately look like.
I’d recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed Engel’s previous books, or those who want an intelligent and emotional mystery. The plotting will keep you reading until the end to find out the solution to the mystery – but what will stay with you is the beautifully-depicted study of grief, vengeance and the shockwaves that continue to reverberate in a small community long after a tragic event.
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