The Death of Us by Abigail Dean

This is a powerful, character driven story about the effects of trauma and the different coping strategies used by those affected.

The book starts after the terrible crime has already been committed, where the reader doesn't know what has happened. Slowly it comes out that people in South London, couples, have been put through an horrific and violent ordeal in their own homes. The story focuses on one couple, Isabel and Edward, where Isabel addresses her life in the past to the perpetrator, speaking in the first person. Edward's story, by contrast, occurs after the events as they meet up for the trial twenty years later.

An intense and poignant book that shows the far reaching consequences of fear, shame and regret, of making and keeping connections. Introspective rather than a mystery or a crime novel, with a teeny bit of suspense at the end, this is a book about the mind, so fair to say psychological. I was struck by Dean's first book Girl A, which has some similarities to this one in terms of quality and dealing with the aftereffects of disturbing trauma. Well written with an unusual perspective for victims of crime. Recommended.

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Published by Hemlock Press on 10 April 2025.
​Advance review copy supplied by the publisher.

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