****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
In The Night my Husband Killed me, Kathleen Hewtson writes a brilliant first person narrative that gives a personalised account of four women's lives before and after they were killed. Each story is based on four famous cases of four real women and is told in retrospect as each woman's ghost reflects on their lives, including the good times with their family as well as the bad. The love they felt, the loss they felt, the betrayal they felt. The lead up to the eventual end, the signs that they chose to ignore when they were alive, but became crystal clear in death.This is haunting to read, and so chilling at times it became overwhelming and I had to take a breath and put down my kindle. But I was compelled to pick it up again and keep on reading. As if I owed it to the memory of Natalie, Nicole, Sunny and Colette. To hear their voice as it might be, if in actual fact they could communicate with us, and speak the truth from the grave about what had happened to them.For me the resounding, powerful message from these stories, is the notion that everyone has the right to be heard, but the dead can't speak and can't bear witness. They have been silenced forever. Its left to the living to work it out, and that doesn't always happen. The truth is often twisted and turned on its head, until no one knows what or who to believe, even with the evidence staring them in the face. If only we could tap into the ghosts and could hear their voices, and know the truth, as Kathleen Hewtson has fictionalised in this novel.My final thoughts, as I finished each story was the hope that all four women's souls did find their peace in reaching the light and could all finally rest in whatever place they chose, as indicated by the author. That doesn't make what happened to them right, but it does give closure to their stories, and a more befitting beauty to their memories.Highly recommended.
