Trigger Warning! Early on in my career as a mystery thriller writer, I was given the advice not to include anything in my crime novels that has to do with harming children or – even worse – dogs and cats (or any other pets). I was told that people would condemn my books and not wanting to buy them.
To a certain extent I can understand this. Some years ago, I founded an animal rescue group in Northern Newfoundland and have encountered my fair share of animal abuse which is hard to bear. With children, it is almost unbearable to even think about it. Every minute children are harmed, tortured or killed in this world. Just one example: In the United States, a child is abused every six minutes.
If we authors ignore crimes committed on children or animals in order to avoid any criticism, then people are not reminded that these crimes are omni-present in our world. But at the same time, I feel that I don’t have to resort to gory or brutal descriptions in my books as a form of morbid entertainment.
Recently I made time in order to fully engage with a memoir about incest. The author of the book lives on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, not far from me. She is a former journalist, in her sixties and originally from the province of Ontario. I think the first reflex on such a difficult topic is to think: I don’t want to read about child sexual abuse because it could haunt me in my dreams. On the other hand, it is an urgent and important issue to which I don’t want to close my eyes. The author’s father was a respected and popular doctor, but he used the youngest of his three daughters for his misguided sexual needs. The abuse probably started when the girl was five years old. It is not only heartbreaking to read about what was done to her, but also about the pain, inner turmoil and struggle that the author went through for decades to find healing and inner peace.
I hope this memoir finds a large audience and the recognition it deserves, because it is masterfully written and harrowing, but captivating at the same time. And a very necessary book to shine light on a taboo topic. “Only two per cent of incest cases are reported to police”, writes Heather Conn in her memoir.
(No Letter in Your Pocket by Heather Conn, MiroLand 2023, it will be published on May 1, 2023, but you can pre-order it.)
